m?. 


STREET-LAND 


WELFARE    SERIES 

Edited  by  RALPH  TRACY  HALE 
A  tenet  dealing  with  the  problem  of  human  well-being 

in  varied  field* 
STREET-LAND  By  Philip  Davis 

Its  Little  People  and  Head  Worker.  Civic  Service 

Big  Problem*  House.  Boston 

assisted  by  Grace  Kroll 

A  spirited  discussion  of  the  problem  of  child-life  in  the  city 
streets,  dealing  carefully  and  concretely  with  the  streets  and  their 
subtle  relations  to  home,  work  and  play,  school  and  health,  vice 
and  virtue.  12  mo.  Illustrated*.  Net,  $135 

THE  FIELD  OF  SOCIAL  SERVICE 

Edited  by  Philip  Davis 
in  collaboration  with  Maida  Herman 
A  series  of  papers,  each  by  a  specialist,  presenting  in  popular 
form  the  field  of  social  work,  without  undue  emphasis  on  "charit- 
able" work  in  its  narrower  sense  and  with  abundant  suggestions 
of  ways  in  which  persons  of  means,  time  and  talent,  resourceful 
organizations  or  the  community  can  have  a  share  in  the  work. 
12  mo.    Illustrated.    Net,  $1.50 

CONSUMPTION  ByJohnB.Hawes,2d,M.D. 

Instructor  in  Medicine  Harvard 
Medical  School,  Secretary  Massa- 
chusetts Tuberculosis  Commission 

A  succinct  account  of  tuberculosis,  particularly  pulmonary 
tuberculosis  or  consumption,  with  special  consideration  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  first  of  all  a  human  problem. 

12  mo.    Illustrated.    Net,  50  cents 

AT  THE   FOUNTAIN-HEAD 

By  William  F.  Boos,  M.  D. 

Five  stories  on  the  origin  of  life.  At  the  Fountain-head  ' 
will  be  useful  to  parents  and  teachers  who  have  decided  to 
give  information  on  sex-hygiene  to  the  children  in  their  charge," 
is  the  endorsement  of  President-emeritus  Charles  W.  Eliot  of 
Harvard,  Honorary  President  of  the  American  Federation  for 
Sex-Hygiene. 

Small  12  mo.    Boards.    Net,  35  cents 


Other  volumes  in  preparation 


Small,  Maynard  &  Company,  Publishers,  Boston 


STREET -LAND 

ITS   LITTLE   PEOPLE  AND 
BIG  PROBLEMS 


BY 
PHILIP  DAVIS 

Editor  of    The  Field  of  Social  Service 

Director,  Civic  Service   House,  Boston 

Formerly  Supervisor  of  Licensed  Minors 

(Boston  Public  Schools) 

ASSISTED   BY 

GRACE   KROLL 

Illustrated  from  Photographs 


BOSTON 

SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1915 

BY  SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 
(Incorporated) 


6.  J,  PASKHILL  &  Co.,  BOSTON,  U.S.A, 


Srirtratrti  to  tlj*  mmuirg  nf 

ffflm  Wonircui  Wtl0on 


328251 


FOREWORD 

The  author  is  indebted  to  Mrs.  Pauline 
Agassiz  Shaw,  whose  sympathy  with  the  needs 
of  city  children  has  made  possible  important 
enterprises  touching  our  neighbors  from  kin- 
dergarten to  citizenship. 

The  volume  is  offered  to  the  public  in  the 
hope  that  it  may  stimulate  the  movement  to 
provide  a  safer  and  saner  environment  for  city 
children. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION xiii 

CHAPTER 

I     IN  STREET-LAND i 

/  II     STREET  HAZARDS 31 

V;  III^,  NIGHT  CHILDREN 62 

V    IV     SCHOOL  DESERTERS 94 

—V    VACATION  TIME 118 

V '  VI  _CHILD  WORKERS  IN  THE  STREETS    .      .      .143 
VII     CHILD  WORKERS  AND  VAGRANTS     .     .     .172 

VIII     STREET   WORK:   THE   STORY   OF   AN   EX- 
PERIMENT  197 

STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME  .     .      .      .  227 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 277 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Saturday-night  ' '  shiners  ' '  See  page  156    Frontispiece 

Types  of  market  boys 14 

•Little  woodpickers 22 

Mumps  circulating1 42 

Children  of  the  dumps 46 

Street  arrests 58 

Bunking1  out  for  the  night 68 

Willie,  the  food  scavenger 74 

Beyond  the  jurisdiction  of  the  truant  officer.     .  96 

The  girl  behind  the  pushcart 154 

The  night  shift 160 

Fighting  the  coal  trust 170 

5   o'clock    Sunday    morning   in    "  Newspaper 

Row" 200 

Self-government  in  action 220 

Profitable  use  of  school  roof 238 

A  dump  turned  into  a  playground  .     .     ...  248 


INTRODUCTION 

Several  years  ago  I  was  called  from  tHe  field 
of  organized  labor  to  supervise  the  most  disor- 
ganized labor  imaginable — child  labor  in  city 
streets.  Newsboys,  bootblacks,  peddlers,  mes- 
senger boys,  delivery  boys,  "bag  boys,"  wood- 
pickers — about  five  thousand  in  Boston  alone, 
most  of  them  school  children, — were  every- 
where on  the  streets,  too  often  during  school 
hours. 

Stirred  by  the  constant  sight  of  these  chil- 
dren toiling  in  the  streets,  Boston,  thanks  to  its 
New  England  conscience,  was  first  in  securing 
a  model  child  labor  law  for  street  work;  in  de- 
vising a  system  of  licensing  those  allowed  to 
sell  under  the  law;  and  in  working  out  a  plan 
of  street  supervision  under  the  direction  of  a 
Supervisor  of  Licensed  Minors.  The  first 
definite  result  was  a  considerable  reduction  in 

xiii 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

the  number  of  working  children.  The  News- 
boys' Republic  and  Newsboys'  Court  were  some 
of  the  by-products  of  this  system  of  super- 
vision. 

This  volume  is  the  result  of  five  years  of 
daily  supervision  over  three  thousand  juvenile 
street  workers  of  school  age  and  of  many  thou- 
sand juvenile  street  idlers  of  all  ages.  Much 
tramping  night  and  day  over  the  proverbially 
crooked  streets  of  Boston,  made  me  realize 
how  much  larger  was  the  army  of  idle  children 
on  the  streets  who  were  not  looked  after  at  all. 

The  prerogatives  of  the  loafing  boy  as 
against  the  working  boy  came  home  to  me  with 
special  force  the  first  evening  after  the  passage 
of  a  new  law  ordering  all  licensed  children  to 
stop  work  at  eight  o'clock.  The  first  boy  I 
found  selling  after  eight  o'clock  had  a  "corner" 
in  the  worst  district  of  the  city.  There  was 
therefore  an  additional  reason  for  sending  him 
home  early. 

"How  about  the  new  law  ?"  I  asked,  pointing 
to  the  clock, 


INTRODUCTION  xv 

The  boy  packed  up  and  went  home.  Fifteen 
minutes  later  I  found  him  back  on  the  corner 
and  deep  in  a  game  of  craps  with  a  gang  of 
older  boys. 

"Back  again?"  I  said. 

"I  ain't  sellin',"  he  answered. 

He  knew  all  about  the  new  law  because  the 
teachers  had  explained  it  in  all  the  schools  that 
day.  But  nothing  had  been  said  about  "shoot- 
ing craps"  after  eight  o'clock  at  night. 

Since  then  I  have  seen  all  kinds  of  loafing 
children.  Why  should  they  receive  less  care 
and  guidance  on  American  city  streets  than  the  ^ 
working  children?  The  only  attention  they 
get,  generally  from  the  "cop,"  is  when  they  are 
caught  in  wrong-doing.  They  are  then,  in 
nine  cases  out  of  ten,  handled  by  the  officers  as 
if  they  were  criminals.  The  new  view  under- 
lying the  civil  procedure  of  modern  juvenile 
courts,  which  is  fast  displacing  the  older  crim- 
inal procedure  as  applied  to  children,  has  not  as 
yet  permeated  the  American  police  force  and, 
possibly,  not  even  the  American  public. 


xvi  INTRODUCTION 

The  new  view  of  the  tender  child  is  that  it  is 
incapable  of  crime  and,  whether  in  or  out  of 
mischief,  is  always  in  need  of  protection,  en- 
couragement and  care.  This  volume  urges 
that  this  more  enlightened  view  is  especially 
applicable  to  the  typical  street  child,  but  too 
often  a  delinquent  in  the  making.  Hence  the 
attempt  to  describe  the  important  street  influ- 
ences which  are  now  undoing  the  work  of  home 
and  school. 

Street  activities,  heretofore  either  ignored 
or  condemned,  must  henceforth  be  organized 
under  direction  and  close  supervision.  The 
many  brilliant  experiments  for  taking  children 
off  the  streets,  which  have  inspired  the  found- 
ing of  many  a  social  settlement,  boys'  club,  va- 
cation school  and  recreation  center,  must  be 
supplemented  by  further  experiments  to  organ- 
ize and  supervise  the  lives  of  the  many  thou- 
sands of  children  still  on  the  streets  and  des- 
tined to  remain  there  for  some  time. 

Helping  street  children  is  the  result  of  a  gen- 
uine impulse  common  to  people  in  all  walks  of 


INTRODUCTION  xvii 

life.  The  appeal  to  help  has  interested  busi- 
ness men,  club  women,  physicians,  lawyers, 
ministers  and  editors,  as  well  as  plain  fathers 
and  mothers.  Much  is  being  done  by  them 
all,  although  in  a  somewhat  disorganized 
fashion.  As  in  the  case  of  open-air  classes  for 
anaemic  children,  so  obviously  necessary — in- 
deed humanely  imperative — the  help  given 
street  children  hardly  reaches  five  per  cent,  of 
those  in  need.  Furthermore,  many  communi- 
ties and  neighborhoods  where  street  life  is  at 
its  worst  care  least  about  improving  it. 

It  is  absolutely  essential  that  every  neigh- 
borhood play  a  searchlight  on  its  own  street 
conditions  in  order  to  locate  and  eradicate 
the  destructive  influences  and  to  lift  the  life 
of  the  street  to  the  level  of  that  which  is  best 
in  the  life  of  the  home  and  the  school. 

Street  children,  like  the  streets,  are  in  a  pe- 
culiar sense,  public  property  of  which  the  com- 
munity is  trustee.  As  the  street  department 
represents  the  community's  sense  of  obligation 
toward  public  property  of  one  kind,  so  the  edu- 


xviii  INTRODUCTION 

cation  and  recreation  departments  must  reflect 
concretely  its  sense  of  responsibility  toward  the 
children  of  the  streets.  The  streets,  hereto- 
fore nobody's  special  business,  ought,  in  this 
new  sense,  to  become  our  common  concern. 
We  must  learn  to  recognize  their  profound  in- 
fluence on  the  eleven  million  city  children  who, 
whether  mine  or  yours,  are  entrusted  to  us  "for 
keeps/' 

PHILIP  DAVIS. 
Civic  SERVICE  HOUSE, 
Boston,  Massachusetts. 
April  10,  1915. 


STREET-LAND 


STREET-LAND 


CHAPTER  I 

STREET-LAND 


^  "Poor  little  rich"  boys  in  city  streets  —  The  Russian 
cobbler's  store-home  •£•  Street  influences:  comments 
by  Jane  Addams,  Jacob  Riis,  Judge  Lindsey  —  •  Street 
problem  national  -#  Visit  to  leading  American  cities  — 
From  farm  to  city  —  Evolution  of  Street-Land  — 
Causes  and  growth  of  city  congestion  —  The  modern 
tenement  home  —.  Disintegration  of  the  home  —  The 
street  as  a  playground  —  Night  gayety  —  Festive  days 
in  foreign  quarters  —  •  Busy  bees  of  the  city  —  Games 
and  gaming  —  Gang  activities  —  Educational  aspects 
of  street  life  -2-  Three-fold  standard  of  conduct  -^  The 
masterpiece  of  the  street. 

DR.  WOODS  HUTCHINSON  of  health  fame 
once  met  Dr.  Luther  M.  Gulick  of  playground 
fame  on  the  street. 

Said  Dr.  Hutchinson:  "Where  does  your 
boy  play?" 


2  STREET-LAND 

"On  the  street." 

"So  does  mine.  Do  you  think  it  is  a  good 
place?" 

"No." 

"Well,"  Dr.  Hutchinson  continued, 
"wouldn't  it  be  a  good  thing  to  have  a  place 
where  they  could  have  some  swings  and  some 
see-saws  and  a  place  to  dig,  and  a  place  where 
they  could  make  a  boat  and  do  things  ?" 

"Yes,"  Dr.  Gulick  replied. 

"Let  us  get  one." 

"All  right." 

Dr.  Gulick,  who  tells  the  story,  also  tells 
the  sequel: 

"Dr.  Hutchinson  took  one  section  of  the 
neighborhood  and  I  took  another  to  find  such 
a  place.  Difficulty  after  difficulty  was  encoun- 
tered until  we  had  to  give  it  up." 

This  is  the  predicament  in  which  two  distin- 
guished citizens  of  New  York  City  found  them- 
selves with  regard  to  their  children.  These 
men  are  far  removed  from  the  poverty  zone. 
Imagine  then  the  plight  of  poor  city  parents. 


IN  STREET-LAND  3 

Take,  for  instance,  the  Russian  cobbler,  who, 
upon  the  death  of  his  wife,  transferred  his  six 
children  and  other  belongings  to  his  shoe  store 
on  a  side  street. 

He  was  much  impressed  when  he  heard  that 
the  settlement  across  the  way  was  going  to 
discuss  the  subject  of  children  on  the  streets. 

"Mine  golly,"  he  exclaimed,  "that's  a  good 
subject.  I'll  come  over." 

His  shoe  store  was  never  intended  for  a 
home.  Naturally,  it  overflowed  onto  the  side- 
walk. The  children  had  to  fall  back  on  the 
street  for  all  other  than  sleeping  purposes. 
The  street  was  something  new  in  the  lives  of 
these  children.  They  were  born  in  a  Russian 
.village  more  nearly  resembling  a  New  England 
hamlet  than  the  tenement  district  of  a  big  city. 
Like  all  immigrant  children,  they  plunged  into 
Street-Land  faster  than  Alice  got  into  Wonder- 
land. 

Millions  of  children,  many  of  them  of  the 
peasant  type,  are  having  their  first  taste  of 
American  life  on  crowded  city  streets.  Never 


4  STREET-LAND 

did  children  shift  for  themselves  as  much  as 
they  do  in  our  cities  today.  Some  are  left 
on  the  street  alone  at  the  age  of  two. 

"What  will  the  street  do  to  the  eleven  mil- 
lion city  children  so  largely  dependent  on 
them?"  This  question  is  of  great  moment  to 
all  parents  and  teachers  whose  work  is  being 
daily  undone  by  the  street. 

Those  who  know  the  street  best  have  repeat- 
edly warned  us  against  its  dangers.  Jane 
Addams  makes  this  plea:  "By  all  means  let 
us  preserve  the  safety  of  the  home;  but  let  us 
also  make  safe  the  street,  in  which  the  majority 
of  our  young  people  find  recreation  and  form 
permanent  relationships."  Jacob  Riis  point- 
edly reminds  us  that  "the  street  is  all  surface. 
Nothing  grows  there;  it  hides  only  a  sewer." 
And  Judge  Lindsey,  with  characteristic  energy, 
issues  a  call  to  arms:  "We  must  battle 
against  the  street,  the  conditions,  the  environ- 
ment, the  causes,  if  we  are  to  perform  our  full 
duty  to  our  children." 

These  are  not  opinions  but  convictions  based 


IN  STREET-LAND  5 

on  many  years  of  observation  and  experience. 
They  are  the  result  of  active  and  fruitful  par- 
ticipation in  a  great  variety  of  attempts  to  im- 
prove city  life.  They  are  reenforced  by  local 
studies  made  from  many  different  points  of 
view.  Investigations  of  tenement-house  com- 
missions, immigration  commissions,  city  sur- 
veys and,  especially,  recreation  surveys, — all 
point  to  one  conclusion:  The  street,  though 
unfit  for  play,  is  nevertheless  the  playground  of 
ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  children  of  most 
American  cities. 

The  Recreation  Survey  of  Milwaukee,  for 
example,  showed  that  wherever  the  population 
was  densest  and  the  youthful  element  per  thou- 
sand greatest,  play  space  was  least  available. 
Furthermore,  the  streets  of  those  congested 
areas,  though  most  used  for  play,  were  least  fit 
for  such  a  purpose.  The  Recreation  Survey  of 
Providence,  Rhode  Island,  states  that  of  six 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  children  seen  playing, 
four  hundred  were  on  the  streets.  The  In- 
dianapolis Recreation  Survey  says,  "From  the 


6  STREET-LAND 

careful  examination  of  every  part  of  the  city, 
it  appears  that  fully  eighty  per  cent,  of  the 
people  live  in  districts  where  there  are  no  avail- 
able spots  for  games  requiring  space."  A! 
country-wide  survey  of  street  life  would  show 
convincingly  that  what  is  true  of  these  cities  is 
true  of  practically  all  American  cities. 

As  Supervisor  of  Licensed  Minors  for  the 
Boston  School  Committee,  I  visited  many  cities 
in  order  to  find  out  what  street  children  were 
doing  and  what  was  being  done  for  them.  I 
left  Boston  convinced  that  altogether  too  many 
of  its  children  frequented  the  city  dumps,  only 
to  find  that  in  Baltimore  the  children  used 
the  gutter  as  their  playground.  For  them, 
the  open  sewer  was  probably  the  laughing 
brook  of  the  kindergarten  story.1  The  East 
Side  of  New  York  was  so  crowded  that  a  va- 
cant lot  was  a  luxury.  Each  side  of  the  street 

1  The  city  of  Baltimore  is  putting  in  a  complete  sewer  sys- 
tem and  asphalting  the  streets  at  the  same  time.  When  the 
sewer  is  completed,  Baltimore  will  at  last  be  rid  of  the  open 
gutter,  its  long-standing  shame. 


IN  STREET-LAND  7 

was  pre-empted  by  pushcart  peddlers  hours  be- 
fore the  children  rose  in  the  morning.  The 
famous  Chicago  Loop,  though  one  of  the  most 
congested  business  districts  in  the  world,  was 
full  of  children  playing  and  working  and  loaf- 
ing in  the  midst  of  danger. 

In  view  of  these  findings,  it  was  a  unique 
privilege  to  join  a  delegation  headed  by  Miss 
Addams  on  its  way  to  Springfield  to  plead  with 
the  Illinois  Legislature  that  at  least  the  very 
little  children  be  taken  off  the  streets.  One 
legislator  disposed  of  the  Boston  Newsboy 
Law,  which  I  was  asked  to  describe,  by  saying, 
"We  don't  follow  Boston  styles." 

Yet  Springfield,  Illinois,  was  just  as  back- 
ward as  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  which  had 
refused  for  two  decades  to  avail  itself  of  the 
very  statute  urged  upon  the  Illinois  Legisla- 
ture. This  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  system 
had  been  in  effect  in  Boston  long  enough  to 
deserve  a  fair  trial  in  neighboring  cities. 
Hartford,  across  the  Connecticut  line,  was 


8  STREET-LAND 

found  even  more  stubborn  than  Springfield. 
Indeed  it  still  refuses  to  take  the  newsgirls  off 
the  street. 

My  trip  showed  conclusively  that  every  city 
may  be  singled  out  for  some  special  phase  of 
the  street  problem.  But  certain  quarters  in 
all  cities  reproduce  the  same  street  environ- 
ment and  the  same  street  product  with  an  ex- 
actness as  though  the  productive  processes 
were  consciously  standardized.  Every  juvenile 
court  proves  this  regardless  of  the  nationality 
of  the  child  and  the  country  he  came  from. 
Indeed  in  this  country,  the  street  boy  and  the 
juvenile  court  seem  made  for  each  other.  In 
the  old  country,  both  the  street  and  the  court 
are  unknown.  There  the  boy  is  as  native  to 
the  soil  as  are  the  trees  and  flowers. 

We  must  never  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that 
many  of  the  children  now  relegated  to  Ameri- 
can streets  are  of  peasant  origin  and  rural 
birth.  They  may  have  been  born  in  abject  pov- 
erty, but  there  was  plenty  of  air  and  sunshine. 
The  millions  of  men,  women  and  children  who 


IN  STREET-LAND  9 

now  elbow  each  other  on  the  streets  and  in  the 
tenements  of  our  large  cities  are  mainly  from 
farm  and  hamlet.  This  is  true  whether  they 
come  originally  from  rural  America  or  Europe. 
Even  our  maligned  friends  in  Chinatown — 
where  streets  are  at  their  worst  in  every  sense 
of  the  word — hail  from  peasant  villages  de- 
scribed in  "Letters  from  a  Chinese  Official" 
as  follows: 

"Far  away  in  the  East,  under  sunshine  such 
as  you  never  saw — for  even  such  light  as  you 
have  you  stain  and  infect  with  sooty  smoke — 
on  the  shore  of  a  broad  river,  stands  the  house 
where  I  was  born.  It  is  one  among  thousands ; 
but  every  one  stands  in  its  own  garden,  simply 
painted  in  white  or  gray,  modest,  cheerful  and 
clean.  .  .  .  Prosperous  peasants  people  all  the 
district,  owning  and  tilling  the  fields  their  fath- 
ers owned  and  tilled  before  them.  .  .  .  Here 
in  the  lovely  valley,  live  thousands  of  souls 
without  any  law  save  that  of  custom,  without 
any  rule  save  that  of  their  own  hearths/' 

Coming  from  hamlets  where  the  unit  of  so- 


io  STREET-LAND 

ciety  is  the  home  and  the  river  or  highway  is 
the  street  in  the  original  sense  of  the  term,  the 
little  people  of  Europe,  sweet  and  simple,  are 
suddenly  plunged  into  the  complex  life  of  our 
American  city  streets  and  are  overwhelmed  as 
by  the  great  waters  they  have  just  crossed. 

I  have  never  recovered  from  the  effects  of 
my  own  first  days  on  the  East  Side.  I  was 
fourteen  when  I  left  my  native  village  which, 
for  peace  and  simplicity,  well  answers  the  de- 
scription of  the  Chinese  village. 

The  moment  I  landed  I  found  myself  in  a 
new  world :  The  houses,  the  streets,  the  crowds 
took  my  breath  away.  The  hard  pavement 
resounding  with  my  steps  frightened  me.  I 
looked  in  vain  up  and  down  the  street  for  a 
blade  of  grass.  I  missed  the  river,  the  sweep 
of  sky.  For  the  moment,  my  spirit  was  utterly 
crushed  by  the  brick  and  stone  around  me. 
Yet  the  East  Side  was  not  always  character- 
ized by  stone  streets  and  brick  tenements. 
Like  many  American  cities,  it  also  began  amid 
green  pastures  watered  by  a  river. 


IN  STREET-LAND  n 

Consider  the  history  of  the  North  End  of 
Boston,  one  of  the  most  congested  districts  in 
this  country,  where  some  seven  hundred  people 
jostle  one  another  upon  each  small  acre.  Not 
so  very  long  ago,  it  was  a  wooded  hill  sur- 
rounded by  marsh  and  ocean.  Today  the 
filled-in  marsh  and  millpond  are  teeming  with 
human  beings  struggling  for  a  foothold.  On 
the  southerly  slope  where  once  the  "children 
played  freely  knee-deep  in  the  grass,  while  the 
fresh  sea  breezes  instilled  in  them  the  joy  of 
living/'  there  is  standing  room  only  for  theux. 
new  generation. 

The  history  of  this  end  of  Boston,  now  fa- 
miliarly known  as  Little  Italy,  reveals  the 
stages  of  the  evolution  of  Street-Land  charac- 
teristic of  many  such  districts.  The  North 
End,  at  least  all  that  was  really  worth  owning, 
was  once  the  property  of  William  Copp.  It 
was  a  fair-sized  New  England  farm.  Its 
chief  feature  was  a  windmill.  Its  cowpaths 
were  'destined  to  become  the  famous  narrow 
and  crooked  streets  and  alleys  of  the  North 


12  STREET-LAND 

End.  Within  a  century,  the  southerly  slope 
developed  into  a  little  hamlet  with  the  main 
street  at  its  base.  A  similar  hamlet  on  the 
southerly  side  of  Beacon  Hill  helped  to  raise 
the  colony  to  the  dignity  of  town.  In  1822 
Boston  became  a  city.  Today  the  population 
of  the  North  End  alone  is  thirty-four  thou- 
sand. There  are  about  twenty  persons  to  the 
dwelling,  while  in  some  blocks,  the  density  of 
population  reaches  the  appalling  figure  of  eight 
hundred  and  eighty  per  acre. 

Some  people  choose  to  call  such  districts 
slums  because  the  physical  and  moral  atmos- 
phere is  not  congenial  to  the  eye  and  soul  of 
man.  What  they  really  object  to  is  congestion, 
the  most  obvious  characteristic  of  these  dis- 
tricts. The  causes  of  congestion  are  many — 
the  influx  of  native-born  people  from  the  coun- 
try, the  influx  of  immigrants  from  abroad  and 
the  high  birth  rate  characteristic  of  the  peoples 
of  the  New  Immigration. 

Furthermore,  the  people  in  these  districts  are 
trying  the  experiment  of  living  over  and  under 


IN  STREET-LAND  13 

one  another.  The  block  and  lot  system  has 
become  the  universal  pattern,  not  because  it  is 
most  comfortable,  but  because  it  is  cheapest. 
Under  this  system,  front  yards  are  given  up  as 
wasteful  and  back  yards  are  crowded  with 
houses.  Necessarily,  streets  become  narrower 
and  alleys  darker.  Rooms  are  gradually 
shrinking  in  size.  Cellars,  basements  and  gar- 
rets are  being  pressed  into  service.  Living 
rooms  are  turned  into  sweatshops.  Taking  in 
boarders  becomes  the  rule.  As  a  result,  kitch- 
ens are  frequently  used  as  bedrooms,  and  some 
bedrooms  are  occupied  by  day  shifts  and  night 
shifts.  "Even  the  resting-place  must  run  full 
time  to  meet  the  overhead  expenses  of  the 
plant." 

The  sacrifice  of  space  between  houses  and  of 
all  yard  space,  both  front  and  back,  led  to  the 
over-crowding  of  the  diminutive  tenement 
homes.  The  average  tenement  consists  of  a 
kitchen,  a  front  room  and  one  or  two  bedrooms 
always  provided  with  double  beds.  The  chil- 
dren are  overlooked.  Even  their  sleeping 


14  STREET-LAND 

quarters  are  forgotten  except  in  so  far  as  the 
beds  of  the  adults  can  accommodate  them. 
The  cradle  is  gone.  There  is  hardly  room  for 
the  baby  carriage. 

The  tenement  home  is  a  far  cry  from  the  old 
homestead  of  New  England,  or  the  home  which 
the  immigrants  left  behind  them  in  the  old 
country.  The  good  old-fashioned  home  has 
absolutely  broken  down.  Some  one  has  called 
the  city  home  a  lodging  house  plus  a  Baltimore 
Dairy. 

Such  an  institution,  like  the  Baltimore  Dairy 
Lunch  itself,  may  be  a  very  clever  invention  to 
meet  the  sudden  needs  of  the  day.  But  it  does 
not  serve  the  unchanging  needs  of  childhood, — 
room,  air,  sunshine.  The  tenement  home  has 
neither  nursery  nor  playroom.  The  space 
cannot  be  spared.  Birth  and  death  alike  claim 
the  privilege  of  privacy  for  but  a  moment. 
The  home  used  to  be  the  center  of  everything 
— "work,  play,  love  and  worship/'  Today  the 
theory  seems  to  be  that  one  either  works  or 
sleeps.  Adults  may  have  to  submit,  but  the 


IN  STREET-LAND  15 

children  rebel  and  desert  the  home  for  the 
street. 

At  no  time  is  the  modern  tenement  home  so 
completely  exposed  as  the  day  when  it  is  on 
the  move.  Often  the  belongings  are  carried 
from  house  to  house  on  a  pushcart  while  the 
children  trail  behind.  This  is  perhaps  the  sad- 
dest sight  in  Street-Land.  Moving  about  de-j 
stroys  the  attachments  which  are  the  very  basis 
of  good  home  life. 

Out  of  seventy-five  North  End  families  re- 
visited within  a  year,  only  two  were  found  in 
the  same  houses.  None  of  the  others  could  be 
located  anywhere. 

Think  of  the  New  England  homestead  or  the 
home  of  even  the  humblest  European  peasant 
on  the  move.  Before  it  can  emigrate,  one  of 
those  peasant  families  needs  a  year  to  cut  the 
old  moorings  and  sell  out.  Here  people  pack 
their  belongings,  often  only  a  cartful,  and  are 
gone  over  night.  Worse  still,  they  are  fre- 
quently ejected.  The  sinister  herald  of  eject- 
ment is  the  summons  locally  known  as  the 


16  STREET-LAND 

"Tzomes."  In  all  tenement  quarter^  there  are 
regular  bureaus  offering  to  do  the  job  for  a 
fee. 

There  are  other  factors  besides  city  conges- 
tion which  have  disintegrated  the  home  and 
which  are  therefore  important  to  an  under- 
standing of  the  evolution  of  Street-Land. 

Modern  industry  is  one.  The  factory  sys- 
tem took  the  productive  activities  out  of  the 
home  and  was  the  cause  of  many  a  mill  town 
and  many  an  abandoned  farm.  Thousands  of 
families  sold  out  their  farms  and  moved  into 
factory  towns.  Fathers  and  mothers  were 
taken  away  from  home  the  greater  part  of 
the  day.  Children,  too,  were  put  to  work. 
In  the  organization  of  the  mill-town  home, 
children  still  too  young  to  be  in  the  factory 
were  forced  into  the  street.  The  law  that  chil- 
dren must  play  before  they  can  work  was  de- 
fied. No  provision  was  made  for  play  either 
in  or  near  the  home. 

This  led  to  street  play  instead  of  home  play 
and  materially  contributed  to  the  breakdown  of 


IN  STREET-LAND  17 

the  home.  Little  play  grows  out  of  activities 
still  centered  in  the  home.  More  than  eighty 
per  cent,  of  the  pupils  in  the  high  schools  and 
seventh  and  eighth  grades  in  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  in  compositions  on  how  they 
spent  their  leisure  time,  made  no  mention  at  all 
of  home  recreation.  Even  such  delightful 
homey  events  as  Easter  and  Christmas  celebra- 
tions call  for  more  room  than  a  tenement  has 
to  offer.  The  modern  tenement  home  has  all 
but  banished  Santa  Claus.  But  for  the  schools 
and  settlements,  children  in  Street-Land  would 
hardly  know  Jolly  Saint  Nick. 

So  it  happens  that  these  children,  robbed  of 
play  space  both  inside  and  outside  their  homes, 
have  made  the  streets  their  daily  playground. 
The  word  playground  as  applied  to  the  street  is 
almost  a  mockery.  Some  streets  literally  have 
no  more  than  bare  standing  room.  Nearly  all 
streets  are  poor  ground  for  play.  Compare 
the  soft  give  of  the  sod  of  lawn  and  lane  with 
the  stubborn  asphalt  of  street  and  sidewalk. 
Such  play  as  children  have  on  the  street  is  man- 


i8  STREET-LAND 

aged  in  spite  of  obstacles,  thanks  to  their  imag- 
inations. 

Ordinary  streets  are  no  more  fit  for  play 
than  the  playgrounds  would  be  if  shorn  of  all 
equipment.  Moreover,  in  these  days,  we  re- 
fuse to  consider  a  playground  adequate  unless 
it  has,  in  addition  to  its  equipment,  a  carefully 
trained  supervisor  with  a  capacity  for  organiz- 
ing play.  Streets  lack  equipment,  supervision 
and  organization.  Street  life  stands  for  dis- 
organization. 

Its  effects  on  habit  are  well  suggested  in  the 
pathetic  confession  of  many  a  mother :  "Well, 
what  can  you  expect  from  a  street  loafer?" 
This  street  loafer  is  none  other  than  the  boy 
who  began  his  life  career  without  play  and 
ended  his  industrial  career  with  the  "sack." 
His  industrial  future  is  best  summed  up  by 
Joseph  Lee,  who  said  that  "the  boy  without  a 
playground  is  father  to  the  man  without  a 
job." 

The  unbridled  freedom  of  the  street  is  at 
once  its  greatest  drawback  from  the  standpoint 


IN  STREET-LAND  19 

of  the  home  and  its  greatest  attraction  from 
the  standpoint  of  the  child.  A  boy  threatened 
with  trouble  at  home  or  in  school  escapes  to  the 
street.  Wherever  the  school  spells  merely 
discipline  and  the  home  merely  punishment,  it 
is  fortunate  that  the  boy  has  the  street  as  a 
haven  of  escape.  But  the  streets  are  often  so 
many  roads  leading  to  temptation  and  danger. 

The  garish  nights  in  Street-Land  appeal 
strongly  to  the  imagination  of  children  and 
young  people  who  are  bottled  up  during  most 
of  the  daylight  hours  in  home  or  school,  fac- 
tory or  store.  There  are  many  things  which 
contribute  to  the  allurement  of  night  life:  the 
gay  crowds,  the  bright  lights,  the  rollicking- 
frolicking  music  from  the  "movies,"  saloons 
and  hurdy-gurdies  on  all  sides  with  their  crude, 
cheap  imitations  of  better  things. 

These  are  indeed  a  powerful  argument  for 
the  necessity  of  satisfying  children's  inborn 
hunger  for  rhythm  and  motion.  A  music 
school  always  flourishes  in  a  crowded  neighbor- 
hood. The  home  above  the  poverty  line  is  con- 


20  STREET-LAND 

sidered  incomplete  unless  it  has  a  piano.  The 
hurdy-gurdy  is  a  piano  on  the  move.  Its  mu- 
sic is  "classy"  to  those  below  the  poverty  line. 
As  things  are  now,  the  street  certainly  has 
more  music,  good  and  bad,  than  the  average 
tenement  home. 

One  of  the  most  delightful  night  scenes  is  a 
serenading  band  of  young  Italians  with  guitars 
and  mandolins.  It  is  a  treat  in  a  neighborhood 
like  the  North  End  of  Boston  to  catch  the 
strains  of  Santa  Lucia  at  midnight. 

Nothing  is  more  picturesque  than  the  fre- 
quent attempts  on  the  part  of  various  nationali- 
ties, each  in  its  own  manner,  to  give  to  the 
American  street  a  native  setting.  Color,  music 
and  light  are  the  magic  by  which  this  is  accom- 
plished. Large  pennants  of  purple  and  gold 
decorate  windows  and  fire  escapes.  Stone  and 
brick  and  wood  are  for  once  hidden  beneath 
multicolored  drapery  and  flags  of  many  nations. 
Arches  span  the  streets,  illumined  with  red, 
white  and  blue  lights.  Procession  follows  pro- 
cession. 


IN  STREET-LAND  21 

These  fairyland  aspects  of  the  street,  all  too 
rare,  obviously  charm  and  delight  the  children, 
challenging  the  best  that  is  in  them.  Juvenile 
misdoings  amount  to  nothing  on  Italian  Saints' 
days  because  of  better  things  to  do.  One  of 
the  stirring  street  scenes  is  the  annual  pro- 
cession of  thousands  of  children  dressed  in 
white  under  the  banners  of  the  total  abstinence 
societies.  In  this  way,  the  Catholic  Church 
rouses  the  parents  of  the  land  to  a  sense  of 
shame  for  yielding  to  momentary  temptation, 
and  thus  renders  great  service  to  the  State  as 
well  as  the  child,  who  generally  bears  the  bur- 
den of  this  parental  sin. 

Street  children  are  intensely  interested  in 
politics.  The  street  is  the  battleground  of  the 
most  bitterly  fought  elections ;  and  children  al- 
ways fight  out  the  issues  on  their  own  account 
just  as  they  fight  out  all  other  issues  quite  inde- 
pendent of  adult  decisions.  Harvard  and  Yale 
football  controversies,  for  example,  are  never 
settled  unless  they  are  settled — right — by  boys 
on  the  street. 


22  STREET-LAND 

Street  children_thus^^  Is  vital 

for^^eJimeJieingLin  IheJife^nf ^Jlie_community . 
They  mirror  the  good  as  well  as  the  bad. 
When  Peter  Pan  comes  to  town,  an  epidemic  of 
flying  spreads  with  lightning  rapidity  through 
the  streets  to  the  remotest  blind  alleys  and  im- 
agination is  once  more  enthroned.  On  the 
other  hand,  brutality  crops  out  on  every  street 
corner  whenever  a  Jack  Johnson  battles  with 
some  forlorn  white  hope.  At  such  times  let 
the  peddler  beware  of  the  budding  white  hopes 
born  and  bred  in  Street-Land. 

The  street  also  hums  with  activities  which 
are  anything  but  fun.  Child  labor  in  some  of 
its  worst  forms  still  prevails  in  Street-Land. 
The  newsboys,  bootblacks  and  peddlers  are  not 
only  better  known,  but  are  better  off,  perhaps, 
than  the  wood-gatherers,  coal-pickers  and  mar- 
ket boys.  The  latter  types  of  street  workers 
are  not  even  mentioned  in  some  of  our  best 
child  labor  legislation. 

In  spite  of  enormous  handicaps,  the  play  life 
of  Street-Land,  like  its  work  program,  is 


IN  STREET-LAND  23 

varied,  though  too  often  abortive.  The  most 
popular  games  are  those  which  require  least 
space ;  craps  and  marbles,  for  instance.  Peggy, 
which  has  a  touch  of  baseball  in  it  and  which, 
therefore,  appeals  strongly  to  boy  nature,  is 
unfortunately  "squelched"  before  the  boys 
have  a  chance  to  warm  up.  Top  time  is  very 
spectacular.  Hoop-rolling  comes  and  goes 
every  season  like  the  city  snow.  Rope-jump- 
ing is  always  discouraging  because  it  is  sure  to 
be  interrupted  by  an  express  wagon. 

The  frequent  changes  of  the  street  surface 
without  warning  utterly  eliminate  many  kinds 
of  play  dear  to  the  hearts  of  children.  Like 
the  sudden  introduction  of  new  machinery  in 
industry,  the  adjustment  is  painful.  Yet  the 
children,  unlike  the  workers,  get  no  sympathy 
at  all, — perhaps  because  they  do  not  strike  or 
protest  in  adult  fashion.  When  the  face  of  the 
street  was  unpaved,  think  what  it  meant  to 
children  in  dry  as  well  as  rainy  weather. 
With  the  change  to  asphalt  mudpie-making 
disappeared  from  Street-Land.  Though  the 


24  STREET-LAND 

change  made  roller-skating  possible,  it  has  by 
no  means  compensated  the  children  for  the  loss. 
Bicycling,  on  the  contrary,  even  on  bare  rims 
instead  of  pumped  tires,  has  become  a  pleasure 
instead  of  a  punishment. 

The  present  block  system,  with  the  side-to- 
side  and  back-to-back  arrangement  of  the  tene- 
ments, has  pre-empted  the  nooks  and  cor- 
ners where  children  were  wont  to  play  teacher 
and  like  games  which  take  little  room.  They 
still  persist,  however,  on  roofs  and  in  alleys. 
Playing  statue  is  frequent  among  the  recent 
graduates  of  the  kindergarten,  especially 
among  the  girls.  Girls  still  try  to  dance  on 
,the  street  to  the  tune  of  the  hurdy-gurdy;  but 
this  sort  of  thing  is  more  and  more  discour- 
aged by  the  crowds  and  the  traffic.  So,  in  the 
end,  they  fall  back  on  playing  house  in  the  hall 
or  just  sitting  still  on  the  doorstep. 

The  saddest  thing  about  street  games  is  that 
they  end  so  abruptly.  Many  are  begun  but 
few  are  finished.  Children  have  little  oppor- 
tunity to  lose  themselves  in  a  game;  their  en- 


IN  STREET-LAND  25 

thusiasm  is  checked  suddenly  by  circumstances 
and  obstacles  which  they  cannot  overcome. 
The  effect  on  youth  is  disastrous.  It  means 
premature  discouragement  instead  of  the  sense 
of  power  which  comes  with  the  execution  of 
definite  plans.  And  woe  to  the  street  children 
who  become  so  absorbed  in  their  plans  or  play 
that  they  forget  their  surroundings  or  lose 
their  wits.  Many  an  accident  is  due  to  the 
abandon  of  street  play  in  the  midst  of  such 
ever-present  dangers  as  the  trolley  car,  the  au- 
tomobile and  the  numerous  other  death-dealing 
agencies  of  traffic. 

Yet  the  physical  hazards,  as  we  shall  see,  are 
less  serious  than  the  moral  dangers  lurking  in 
the  street. 

Certain  street  games  are  but  gambling  games 
in  embryo.  The  connection  between  games 
and  gaming  is  best  illustrated  by  gang  activ- 
ities ;  some  of  which  are  as  legitimate  as  those 
of  the  best  club  in  a  settlement,  while  others 
are  a  menace  to  both  life  and  property.  Be- 
tween the  two  extremes  lies  a  range  of  gang 


26  STREET-LAND 

activities  which  are  very  much  like  the  acts  of 
savagery  and  barbarism.  Yet  they  have  in 
them  the  germs  of  civilization,  provided  they 
are  properly  directed,  organized  and  super- 
vised. The  best  of  them  mean  the  organic  ed- 
ucation of  the  members  of  the  gang.  Street 
fights,  when  not  inspired  by  blind  prejudice  or 
race  hatred,  are  as  worth  while  as  the  tug-of- 
war  at  a  picnic. 

The  Boston  Common  is  very  frequently  the 
battleground  between  the  West-Enders  and  the 
South-Enders,  both  of  whom  respectively  re- 
sist invasion.  These  battles  have  a  serious 
ending  once  in  a  while,  and  should  be  watched 
by  some  One  who  is  apparently  not  looking. 
But  the  cause  of  invasion  is  as  important  for 
the  boys  to  settle  as  any  tribal  issue  ever  was. 

These  city  feuds  grow  in  volume  and  inten- 
sity during  the  long  vacation  period.  Indeed, 
all  street  vices  as  well  as  virtues  are  enor- 
mously aggravated  in  the  summer  season, 
when  the  days  are  long  and  the  organized  life 
of  the  child  is  completely  suspended,  The 


IN  STREET-LAND  27 

school  vacation  best  illustrates  the  enormous 
disadvantages  under  which  city  children  are 
laboring  as  contrasted  with  children  in  the 
country. 

Though  much  has  been  done  for  city  children 
during  the  summer,  we  have  made  little  prog- 
ress in  developing  and  encouraging  wholesome 
street  activities  which  in  any  way  compare  with 
the  farm  activities  open  to  country  children. 
College  students  are  eager  to  get  farm  work 
not  only  to  earn  their  tuition,  but  to  recover 
from  prolonged  physical  inaction.  We  all 
know  how  much  good  it  does  them.  What 
chance  has  the  average  school  boy  or  girl  of  the 
city,  whose  physical  development  is  so  intense, 
for  a  vacation  other  than  on  the  streets  ? 

We  are  just  beginning  to  appreciate  the 
function  of  the  street  in  the  physical  develop- 
ment of  the  city  child.  Our  city  homes  and 
schools  have  all  but  ignored  that  function. 
The  cramped  manner  of  building  our  houses 
and  schools  proves  this.  The  latent  instincts 
of  both  race  and  tribe,  like  the  latent  powers 


28  STREET-LAND 

of  the  individual,  are  developed  largely  on  the 
street.  The  resulting  hoodlumism  in  certain 
quarters  means  that  this  development  was 
either  arrested  or  carried  to  excess  because  of 
a  lack  of  guidance,  and  this  lack  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  we  have  thus  far  refused  to  see  the 
educational  aspects  of  street  life.  "The  street 
educates  with  fatal  precision."  This  is  really 
what  we  mean  when  we  speak  of  environment 
as  teacher.  Yet  up  to  the  present  time,  we 
have  gone  no  further  than  to  condemn  this  en- 
vironment or,  worse  still,  condemn  the  boy. 

One  cannot  blame  children  for  disliking 
school  and  consequently  playing  truant.  To  sit 
and  sit  for  hours  at  a  stretch  is  not  education 
but  punishment.  The  normal  child  "gets  nerv- 
ous being  good"  all  the  time.  We  fail  to 
recognize  that  school  education  very  frequently 
finds  but  surface  roots  in  the  minds  of  children 
and,  therefore,  gets  wrenched  out  of  place  un- 
der the  least  storm  or  strain ;  whereas  the  roots 
of  street  education  run  deep. 

Little  or  no  attempt  has  been  made  to  square 


IN  STREET-LAND  29 

education  with  the  environment  of  city  chil- 
dren. Educators  have  thus  far  failed  to  do  so. 
In  the  meantime,  children  are  living  a  three- 
fold life, — at  home,  at  school,  and  on  the  street. 
Each  institution  has  its  own  standard  of  con- 
duct. Slang  and  swearing,  forbidden  in 
school,  are  the  proper  thing  on  the  street.  The 
difference  in  these  standards  is  responsible  for 
many  aberrations  in  child  life.  It  explains, 
for  example,  why  Eddie,  who  is  always  a  good 
boy  at  home  and  school,  is  "such  a  devil"  on  the 
street.  It  explains,  furthermore,  why  Eddie 
is  so  knowing  concerning  matters  of  sex  hy- 
giene when  both  the  home  and  the  school  have 
been  intentionally  silent  on  such  matters. 

Here  is  an  excellent  illustration  of  how  the 
great  controversies  of  home  and  school  and 
church  are  nonchalantly  settled  by  the  street, 
as  a  matter  of  course.  For  a  decade,  this 
country  has  hotly  debated  the  where,  when  and 
how  of  teaching  sex  hygiene.  During  this 
same  period,  the  street  has  been  teaching  it  at 
all  hours,  under  all  sorts  of  conditions,  to  thou- 


30  STREET-LAND 

sands  of  children  regardless  of  age  or  sex. 
Another  great  controversy  which  has  been 
raging  for  years  is  the  question  of  the  voca- 
tional versus  the  cultural  motive  in  education. 
The  street  settled  the  contest  long  before  it  was 
conceived  as  such.  It  is  the  street  which  stirs 
a*  boy's  ambition.  The  common  street  heroes 
— the  fireman,  the  conductor  and  the  chauffeur, 
for  example — are  his  models. 

Many  illustrations  may  be  offered  to  show 
the  influence  of  the  street  as  teacher  and  coun- 
selor of  manners  and  morals.  The  best  exam- 
ple of  street  influence  as  a  whole  may  be  seen 
in  men  like  Owen  Kildare,  who  told  his  story  in 
"My  Mamie  Rose."  In  Kildare  as  a  boy,  we 
see  the  masterpiece  of  the  street.  Corner  loaf- 
ing was  the  beginning  and  the  jail  sentence  the 
climax  of  his  tragic  youth.  The  reform 
schools  and  jails  are  full  of  such  types.  We 
cannot  further  ignore  their  existence  or  the 
street  conditions  which  produce  them. 


CHAPTER  -IP 

STREET   HAZARDS 

A  kite-flying  experience  —  Accidents  and  adoles- 
cence —  Street  accidents  to  school  children  — •  Trolley- 
itis  —  Children  versus  traffic  — ' 'Stop !  Look !  Listen !" 
— i Teaching  street  dangers  —  Bathing  in  polluted 
waters  —  Disease  carriers  —  Danger  of  city  dumps — • 
Corruption  of  the  senses  —  Examples  of  manners  and 
morals  —  Street  vices  and  virtues  —  Playing  boarder 
—  Recreation  standards  —  The  Hartford  newsgirl  — 
Origin  of  the  gangsters  —  Relation  of  street  to  de- 
linquency. 

OUR  neighborhood,  one  of  the  most  con- 
gested districts  in  the  country,  was  one  day 
horrified  beyond  words  at  the  sight  of  a  boy  of 
seven  falling  from  the  roof  of  a  four-story  ten- 
ement. 

The  bereaved  family  immediately  turned  its 
back  upon  the  district  never  to  return ;  and  the 
neighborhood,  conscious  of  this  bitter  reproach, 

3* 


32  STREET-LAND 

gossiped  over  the  incident  for  many  days. 
The  boy  had  been  trying  to  fly  his  kite  in  the 
street,  his  only  playground.  The  tall  brick 
buildings  interfered.  Then  an  inspiration 
came  to  him.  He  climbed  up  the  stairs  to  the 
roof.  The  wind  immediately  took  the  kite. 
He  felt  the  pull  as  Franklin  must  have  felt  the 
electric  quiver.  Running  back  to  pay  out  more 
line,  he  misjudged  his  distance — and  paid  with 
his  life. 

Such  accidents  are  common  in  city  life. 
The  real  causes  are  not  generally  understood 
by  the  tenement  dwellers.  This  boy  had  ar- 
rived at  the  age  when  children  begin  to  lead  a 
life  of  their  own  outside  of  home  and  school. 
Spontaneous  activities,  we  are  told,  develop 
and  multiply  rapidly  during  this  period  of 
pre-adolescence.  We  have  mislabeled  it  the 
"school  period/'  showing  our  own  misunder- 
standing of  its  true  significance.  The  motor 
development  of  the  child,  during  these  years  is 
far  greater  than  its  mental  development.  Un- 
fortunately we  have  exaggerated  the  latter. 


STREET  HAZARDS  33 

The  desire  to  move  about,  to  do  things,  to  feel 
the  push  and  pull  of  Nature's  forces ;  the  thirst 
for  adventure,  for  discovery,  for  pioneering, 
for  taking  chances, — these  are  the  strongest 
characteristics  of  this  age. 

These  activities  of  pre-adolescent  youth,  it 
is  suggested,  correspond  to  those  of  the  pre- 
adolescent  period  of  the  race  which  the  child  is 
unconsciously  recapitulating  in  its  own  career. 
Street  environment,  however,  seems  more  haz- 
ardous, in  many  respects,  than  was  the  outdoor 
setting  of  race  adolescence.  Hence  the  fatal- 
ities among  children  of  this  age. 

In  1910  the  Boston  School  Board  appointed 
a  committee  of  school  principals  to  study  and 
report  on  street  accidents  among  school  chil- 
dren. More  than  eighteen  hundred  accidents 
were  reported  in  one  year.  The  largest  num- 
ber of  sufferers  were  children  seven  to  thir- 
teen years  of  age.  It  is  significant  that  these 
ages  practically  correspond  with  those  of  juve- 
nile offenders.  City  hospital  records  also 
show  that  a  majority  of  children  who  are  the 


34  STREET-LAND 

victims  of  street  accidents  are  of  the  same  ten- 
der years.  One-half  the  number  of  these  acci- 
dents were  due  to  trolley  cars.  A  large  num- 
ber resulted  from  falls.  Stealing  rides  on  the 
way  to  and  from  school  was  set  down  as  the 
greatest  source  of  danger. 

It  is  worse  than  a  danger.  Some  one  called 
it  a  disease,  "trolleyitis,"  which  is  constantly 
threatening  the  lives  of  city  children.  It  is 
highly  contagious  and  is  almost  wholly  con- 
fined to  boys.  During  vacation  time,  espe- 
cially, it  is  responsible  for  many  deaths  and  for 
many  more  cripples. 

I  recall  a  boy  who  was  in  the  hospital  for 
many  months  as  the  result  of  a  serious  acci- 
dent. He  tried  to  steal  a  ride  on  a  trolley  car 
but  was  driven  off  by  the  conductor  when  the 
car  stopped.  Then  he  jumped  on  a  wagon  in 
front  of  the  car  only  to  be  whipped  off  by  the 
driver.  He  fell  and  was  run  over  by  the  fen- 
der of  the  approaching  car. 

It  is  quite  natural  for  children  to  take 
chances  regardless  of  how  many  come  to  grief. 


STREET  HAZARDS  35 

Indeed,  the  greater  the  risk,  the  more  it  satis- 
fies certain  children's  unconscious  call  for  acts 
of  daring  and  courage.  I  remember  discover- 
ing two  boys  swinging  from  telephone  wires  in 
a  perfect  abandon  suggestive  of  baby  orang- 
outangs. 

"You  may  be  electrocuted/7  I  said. 

"That's  what  we  want,"  one  of  them  an- 
swered grandly. 

Fortunately  the  wires  proved  to  be  dead. 

I  have  never  seen  a  danger  sign  which  failed 
to  attract  a  number  of  children.  Looping  the 
Loop  is  popular  because  of  the  dangerous  preci- 
pices and  slides  it  affords.  Boys  often  delib- 
erately invite  danger  merely  to  see  what  will 
happen.  I  remember  one  boy  who  seriously 
tampered  with  a  switch  and  then  hid  in  a  hall- 
way to  see  what  would  happen  to  the  next  trol- 
ley car  that  passed.  The  car  was  almost 
wrecked,  much  to  his  delight. 

Many  fatalities  are  due  to  the  conflicting 
uses  commonly  made  of  the  street  both  as  a 
thoroughfare  and  as  a  children's  playground. 


36  STREET-LAND 

Unquestionably  the  automobile  and  the  street 
car  constitute  the  most  destructive  agencies  in 
Street-Land.  Reckless  driving  by  intoxicated 
chauffeurs  and  joy-riders  is  responsible  for 
many  accidents.  The  North  End  mother's  last 
warning  to  Angelo  is  "Look  out  for  the  auto- 
mobile/' which  is  familiarly  called  the  "devil." 
The  schoolboy's  latest  definition  of  a  pedes- 
trian— "one  who  is  run  over  by  an  automobile" 
— is  the  final  word  on  the  subject. 

There  is  great  difficulty  in  placing  the  re- 
sponsibility for  street  accidents.  Automobile 
owners  and  pedestrians  mutually  complain 
against  each  other. 

In  European  cities,  it  is  the  pedestrian  who 
is  arrested  if  he  is  run  over.  The  charge  is 
that  he  crossed  the  street  in  a  manner  contrary 
to  traffic  regulations.  Originally  traffic  ordi- 
nances in  some  European  capitals  were  passed 
for  the  protection  of  the  crown  and  the  nobil- 
ity. The  man  on  foot  who  impeded  the  royal 
carriage  was  deemed  an  anarchist  or  Nihilist. 
Thus  the  right  of  way  was  vested  in  the  few 


STREET  HAZARDS  37 

who  rode  while  the  rest  of  the  world  halted  to 
see  them  pass. 

These  regulations  have  outlived  the  theory 
underlying  their  origin.  Automobile  owners 
insist  that  it  is  to  the  best  interest  of  pedestri- 
ans that  similar  regulations  be  uniformly 
adopted  in  this  country.  They  argue  that, 
even  in  a  democracy,  people  have  no  right  to 
commit  suicide  on  the  street.  It  is  distinctly 
criminal  to  permit  children  to  cross  and  re- 
cross  busy  thoroughfares  unattended  by  adults 
or  unguarded  by  police  officers. 

The  Children's  Committee  of  the  Federation 
of  Women's  Clubs  visited  the  North  End  of 
Boston  to  look  into  the  conditions  of  children 
on  streets  and  playgrounds.  Desiring  to  cover 
as  much  ground  as  possible,  they  used  an  auto- 
mobile which  was  very  carefully  driven.  Yet, 
during  the  half-hour  spent  in  the  district,  two 
children  had  narrow  escapes,  while  one  child 
was  knocked  down.  The  committee  thus  re- 
discovered the  relation  between  streets  and 
accidents. 


38  STREET-LAND 

In  a  district  of  thirty-four  thousand  inhabi- 
tants crowded  onto  sixty  acres  with  but  one 
breathing  spot,  one  hundred  by  two  hundred 
feet,  the  streets  are  necessarily  the  only  play- 
ground for  the  majority  of  the  children. 
Using  the  same  streets  as  thoroughfares  makes 
accidents  absolutely  inevitable.  The  right  of 
the  children  of  such  districts  to  a  residential 
zone  reasonably  restricted  as  to  traffic  is  at 
least  as  patent  as  the  right  of  traffic  itself  to  the 
main  thoroughfares. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  essential  to  the  pro- 
tection of  traffic  as  well  as  children  that  the 
latter  keep  out  of  the  main  thoroughfares  as 
much  as  possible.  They  should  be  taught  that 
the  highways  are  intended  primarily  for  ve- 
hicles ;  that  pedestrians  must  keep  on  the  side- 
walk; that  people  have  a  right  to  cross  in 
safety,  but  only  at  regular  crossings  and  pre- 
ferably on  motion  from  the  traffic  officer;  and 
that  they  must  never  cross  the  street  or  step 
off  a  car  without  remembering  to  "stop!  look! 
listen !"  These  provisions  should  form  a  part 


STREET  HAZARDS  39 

of  every  street  code  and  should  be  posted  in 
conspicuous  places.  Parents,  teachers  and 
street  matrons,  as  well  as  police  officers,  should 
be  held  responsible  for  their  enforcement. 

The  Committee  of  Boston  School  Principals 
found  the  existing  ordinances  insufficient  to 
hold  parents  responsible  and,  therefore,  rec- 
ommended that  the  School  Board  endeavor  to 
secure  such  legislation  as  would  increase  par- 
ental responsibility.  They  also  recommended 
greater  police  vigilance. 

The  Police  Commissioner  attributed  street 
accidents  to  juvenile  lawlessness,  "the  most 
difficult  problem  with  which  the  police  have  to 
deal"  and  one  that  "threatens  the  greatest  dan- 
ger to  the  future  of  the  community." 

The  Commissioner  obviously  intended  to 
make  clear  the  real  issue  involved.  While  the 
enforcement  of  traffic  regulations  is  strictly  a 
matter  for  the  police,  the  prevention  of  street 
accidents  is  a  social  problem.  It  calls  for  the 
co-operation  of  all  the  child-saving  forces  in 
the  community.  Wherever  teachers,  parents 


40  STREET-LAND 

and  the  police  systematically  co-operate  with 
street-car  companies,  an  immediate  reduction 
in  the  number  of  street  accidents  is  noticeable. 

The  Committee  of  Boston  School  Principals 
especially  recommended  that  each  school  prin- 
cipal acquaint  himself  with  the  special  danger 
points  in  his  district  and  tell  the  children  about 
them.  For  example,  children  should  be 
warned  to  "keep  off"  ice  ponds  not  known  to  be 
safe. 

The  annual  toll  from  drownings  is  so  large 
as  to  make  some  people  fatalists.  The  ancient 
superstition  that  each  year  claims  its  fixed  num- 
ber of  victims  is  by  no  means  waning. 

Many  waters  are  dangerous  in  other  ways. 
Polluted  streams  look  tempting  to  children, 
who  are  apparently  amphibious  by  nature. 
Little  or  no  attempt  is  made  by  city  authorities 
to  render  such  waters  safe  for  bathing  pur- 
poses or  to  condemn  them  and  offer  substitutes. 
The  folly  of  guarding  the  purity  of  the  muni- 
cipal water  supply  for  drinking  purposes  and 
at  the  same  time  allowing  hundreds  of  children 


STREET  HAZARDS  41 

to  bathe  in  waters  contaminated  by  sewers  is 
obvious. 

A  so-called  beach  in  Boston,  officially  con- 
demned by  the  Board  of  Health  for  bathing, 
is  nevertheless  used  every  summer  under  the 
supervision  of  the  Bath  Department.  The 
older  boys  of  the  neighborhood,  remembering 
what  the  beach  meant  to  them  in  earlier  days 
and  suspecting  its  present  condition,  took  some 
samples  of  the  water  to  the  Board  of  Health 
for  analysis.  Having  learned  that  the  water 
was  not  fit  for  bathing,  they  immediately  or- 
ganized an  energetic  campaign  for  a  better 
beach  and  playground.  Their  plans,  however, 
were  frustrated  by  the  incoming  Mayor  pledged 
to  give  the  city  an  economy  administration. 

There  is  much  work  awaiting  the  social  sani- 
tarian before  even  the  obvious  physical  hazards 
of  the  street  are  removed.  We  are  just  begin- 
ning to  realize  that  congested  districts,  sunless 
streets,  dirty  homes  and  decaying  food  are  not 
merely  matters  of  inconvenience  and  discom- 
fort, but  of  life  and  death, 


42  STREET-LAND 

"Insanitary  conditions/'  says  Dr.  Walter  S. 
Cornell,  an  authority  on  the  health  of  school 
children,  "probably  increase  germ  virulence, 
although  the  numerous  germs  present  in  dirty 
houses  and  filthy  puddles  are  dangerous  to  hu- 
man kind  principally  because  of  their  greater 
number.  However,  when  we  remember  that 
sunlight  is  the  greatest  agent  in  the  destruction 
of  germs  we  realize  that  lack  of  it  is  at  least 
relatively  a  condition  favoring  germ  life  and 
activity."  Moreover,  lack  of  sleep  and  ex- 
haustion, common  among  city  children,  causes 
a  loss  of  vitality  which  makes  them  all  the  more 
susceptible  to  some  of  these  disease  germs. 

Diphtheria  and  tuberculosis  are  spread  by 
germs  which  lodge  in  clothing  and  food. 
There  is,  therefore,  the  risk  of  becoming  in- 
fected on  the  street  by  children  in  latent  stages 
of  these  diseases  Of  the  eight  thousand  one 
hundred  and  eighteen  cultures  taken  from 
school  children  in  the  Brighton  district  of  Bos- 
ton, one  hundred  and  two  contained  diphtheria 
bacilli.  These  diphtheria  "carriers"  were 


STREET  HAZARDS  43 

probable  sources  of  contagion  to  the  thousands 
of  other  children  of  the  district.  Medical  in- 
spection, the  harbinger  of  a  healthier  people,  is 
becoming  increasingly  more  effective  in  appre- 
hending both  infectious  and  contagious  dis- 
eases of  school  children. 

Sending  such  cases  from  school,  however, 
does  not  always  prevent  infected  children  from 
spreading  disease.  Measles  and  scarlet  fever 
are  frequently  caught  from  children  whom  the 
school  doctor,  having  discovered  early  signs  of 
illness,  sore  throat  or  rash,  for  example, 
sent  home.  These  children  do  not  always 
go  home  nor  do  they  stay  at  home  when  they 
get  there.  Parents,  through  ignorance  or 
carelessness,  actually  send  them  down  onto  the 
street  to  play.  Thus  the  disease  may  be  com- 
municated to  the  many  little  ones  below  school 
age  who  people  the  streets  at  all  hours. 

Human  contact  on  city  streets  is  one  of  the 
great  enemies  to  the  health  of  the  child.  It 
may  well  be  that  the  human  frame  is  "built  like 
an  armor  against  disease,"  but  even  a  splint 


44  STREET-LAND 

may  do  much  damage  once  it  enters.  Little 
Charley,  the  wood-gatherer,  was  laid  up  for 
months  with  a  swollen  foot  due  to  an  undis- 
C9vered  splinter.  In  our  efforts  to  combat  dis- 
ease, we  overlook  the  street  almost  entirely. 
We  take  the  utmost  precautions  to  heal  the 
child  while  in  the  hospital.  We  then  send  him 
home  to  convalesce.  The  home,  in  turn,  too 
often  sends  him  out  into  the  street,  thus  expos- 
ing both  convalescent  and  his  playmates. 

Another  source  of  danger  lies  in  the  candies 
and  other  foods  which  children  eat  on  the 
street.  The  foodstuffs  which  enter  the  home 
are  more  or  less  safeguarded  and  inspected. 
Those  which  are  sold  by  street  vendors  are 
not  even  listed  in  the  government  reports. 
The  many  kinds  of  pickles  on  which  children 
feed  are  not  nearly  so  dangerous  as  the  mo- 
lasses kisses,  chewing  gum,  many-colored  loli- 
pops  and  hokey-pokey  offerings  which  are 
often  sold  at  the  very  gates  of  the  school. 

These  untoward  conditions  doubtless  ac- 
count for  the  fact  that  the  little  folk  of  the 


STREET  HAZARDS  45 

congested  districts  appear  physically  inferior 
to  those  of  the  suburbs.  I  recall  an  afternoon 
visit  to  two  schools,  one  in  the  North  End 
and  the  other  in  Dorchester.  In  each  school, 
the  graduating  class  was  asked  to  stand.  The 
Dorchester  boys  and  girls  very  clearly  meas- 
ured a  head  taller,  on  an  average,  than  the 
North  End  class.  In  fact,  they  looked  alto- 
gether finer  specimens  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. With  due  allowance  for  race  differ- 
ences, the  contrast  was  nevertheless  sugges- 
tive. 

Certain  conditions  militating  against  child 
welfare  are  largely  within  the  control  of  par- 
ents but  are  too  often  neglected  by  them.  But 
what  of  such  conditions  as  are  found  on  city 
dumps  ?  These  are,  in  a  sense,  maintained  by 
the  community  as  a  whole,  the  same  corporate 
agency  that  maintains  schools  and  playgrounds. 
If  our  germ  theory  is  no  fiction,  the  city  dump, 
in  its  very  nature,  is  a  most  effective  germ- 
culture  bed  and  disease-breeder. 

In  many  cities  there  are  more  dumps  than 


46  STREET-LAND 

playgrounds;  and  these  dumps  are  frequently 
more  conveniently  located  for  the  children  of 
the  congested  districts.  The  large  variety  of 
tin  cans  and  other  articles  which  the  ragman 
will  not  buy  and  the  garbage  man  will  not 
take  without  a  tip  or  a  drink  make  fine  play- 
things in  the  eyes  of  city  children.  Many 
children  make  a  business  of  picking  over  dumps 
for  rags,  bottles  and  junk  which  they  sell  to 
ragmen;  or  of  searching  for  coal,  wood  and 
other  things  to  take  home.  It  is  estimated  that 
in  Boston  alone,  more  than  five  hundred  chil- 
dren engage  in  this  work.  The  danger  to 
health  is  obvious,  considering  the  dust  that  is 
raised  and  the  possible  infection  from  the 
things  which  the  scavengers  are  constantly 
handling. 

I  have  often  seen  little  fellows  hitched  to 
carts  in  front  of  a  schoolhouse,  as  eager  to  be 
off  as  spirited  fire-horses.  At  the  sound  of  the 
dismissal  bell,  the  older  boys  rush  out,  whip  up 
these  "horsies"  and  dash  off  at  a  gallop  for 
their  happy  hunting  ground,  the  dump.  What 


STREET  HAZARDS  47 

effect  has  such  a  trip  on  children  who  have  just 
concluded  a  nature  lesson  in  school?  Few 
educators  are  seriously  facing  this  issue. 

During  the  past  two  decades,  we  have  wit- 
nessed the  apparent  breakdown  of  the  senses 
of  the  city  child.  Eyeglasses  are  now  quite  as 
common  among  school  children  as  adenoids. 
But  what  of  the  subtle  corruption  of  the  eye 
which  glasses  cannot  correct?  Remembering 
how  susceptible  the  child  is  to  impressions — 
how  dependent  for  its  ideas  upon  the  senses — • 
contrast  the  effect  of  an  afternoon  in  an  alley 
with  an  afternoon  in  a  hayfield.  Consider  also 
the  nature  of  a  city  child's  daily  sense  experi- 
ences on  the  streets  and  alleys.  Through  eye 
and  ear  he  gets  a  host  of  impressions, — disor- 
ganized, irrelevant  and  trivial. 

Sights  and  sounds  in  Street-Land  are 
foreign  to  ideal  childhood.  Beauty  is  every- 
where suppressed.  Birds  and  flowers  are 
mere  spelling  words  to  many  city  children. 
Dull  and  loud  colors  blur  each  other. 
Wild  noises  fill  the  air.  The  cries  of  the  ice- 


48  STREET-LAND 

man  vie  with  those  of  the  fruit  peddler.  We 
think  children  get  accustomed  to  these  things 
without  realizing  that  the  inevitable  effect  on 
them  is  distraction.  While  the  sound  of  the 
cricket  in  the  country  often  annoys  them,  the 
screeching  of  "L"  trains  at  midnight  appar- 
ently does  not  disturb  their  sleep.  This  only 
demonstrates  what  happens  to  the  senses  when 
subjected  to  the  travesties  and  outrages  of  city 
life. 

The  effect  on  children  is  not  only  physical 
but  moral.  All  early  sights  and  sounds  enter 
into  the  very  fiber  of  manhood  and  woman- 
hood. Physical  tastes  somehow  transform 
themselves  into  tastes  of  a  higher  order.  All 
physiological  experience  has  ethical  meaning. 
The  very  breath  of  the  nostrils  is  the  breath 
of  life.  Foul  and  pure  air  are  good  and  bad 
from  the  standpoint  of  ethics  as  well  as  physics. 
Deny  this  and  you  deny  the  whole  theory  of 
environment,  the  connection  between  environ- 
ment and  health,  and  between  health  and 
morality.  Well-being  and  right-living  are  the 


STREET  HAZARDS  49 

same  thing  expressed  in  physical  and  moral 
terms.  Corrupting  the  senses,  the  guardians 
of  well-being,  is  undermining  the  possibilities 
of  right-living. 

Children,  like  adults,  are  apparently  at  their 
worst  on  the  street.  Liberty  easily  merges  into 
license,  which,  in  turn,  too  often  breeds  licen- 
tiousness. Bad  examples  of  manners  and 
movements  advertise  themselves  widely  and 
become  contagious.  "Everybody's  Doin'  It," 
the  latest  expression  of  mob  psychology,  is  the 
great  democratic  sanction  of  the  day. 

The  cash-girl  of  the  five-and-ten-cent  store 
who  shocks  the  quiet  household  with  her  new 
puffs  has  only  one  explanation :  "Nicer  ladies 
than  me  wear  them."  Unfortunately  unsus- 
pecting parents  do  not  know  that  the  "nicer 
ladies"  in  question  are  often  "low-down" 
women  who  have  ceased  to  work  for  a  living 
or,  worse  still,  young  girls  who  have  never 
worked.  They  always  dress  loudly,  evidently 
to  attract  attention.  Curiously  enough,  they 
succeed  in  attracting  those  least  intended,  the 


50  STREET-LAND 

young  shop  girls  who,  in  that  aristocratic  pres- 
ence, find  themselves  shabby  and  unlady-like. 
The  ambition  "to  be  a  lady,"  as  genuine  as  it 
is  universal,  is  thus  unfortunately  inspired  by 
the  worst  models.  Many  a  well-meaning  girl 
lands  in  the  reformatory  for  helping  herself  to 
perfume  and  rouge  and  other  such  means  of 
becoming  a  lady. 

These  tendencies  reveal  the  difficulty  of  dis- 
entangling the  vices  from  the  virtues  of  the 
street.  The  characteristic  street  girl  is  "pas- 
sionately adventurous,  eager  and  unafraid, 
light  of  heart  and  purse  and  keen  on  running 
the  gauntlet  of  the  great  city."  She  will  risk 
all  for  the  sake  of  a  popular  ideal  or  fashion. 
One  of  the  girls  at  the  Civic  Service  House  told 
in  the  club  of  "blowing"  herself  to  a  spring 
hat  at  the  price  of  two  weeks'  pay.  When 
taken  to  task  by  the  club  leader,  all  she  said 
was,  "My,  but  it's  nice."  She  liked  to  dress 
"stylish"  at  all  costs.  Such  an  ambition  may 
lead  to  self-respect  and  other  virtues,  but  it 
may  also  lead  to  vice. 


STREET  HAZARDS  51 

When  Jenny  "makes  a  date"  with  an  un- 
known safer  on  the  Common,  she  is  uncon- 
sciously playing  a  social  game  of  consequences. 
The  game  may  end  by  her  living  happily  ever 
afterward.  But  she  may  be  sent  to  the 
"Island,"  forcing  her  mother,  who  never  before 
told  a  lie,  to  announce  that  Jenny  has  gone 
on  a  vacation. 

Sex  education  did  not  arrive  soon  enough 
for  Jenny.  The  State  spent  five  thousand  dol- 
lars to  cure  her  of  truancy,  but  the  reform 
schools  failed  to  prepare  her  to  avoid  the  pit- 
falls of  awakening  SQX  impulses.  One  won- 
ders why  the  science  of  arithmetic  still  has  pre- 
cedence over  the  science  of  eugenics,  even  in 
the  reform-school  curriculum.  Arithmetic  may 
be  exact,  but  eugenics  is  more  exacting. 

It  was  at  recess  time,  immediately  following 
an  arithmetic  lesson,  that  little  Mamie,  the  star 
member  of  the  ungraded  class,  played  a  new 
game  with  a  select  gang  in  the  school  basement. 
As  a  result,  there  were  a  few  arrests  and  ex- 
tended "vacations."  Mamie  couldn't  see  the 


52  STREET-LAND 

difference  between  playing  teacher  and  playing 
boarder, — it  was  all  pretending  anyhow. 

There  are  enough  boarders  in  the  average 
'tenement  home  to  justify  the  definition  given 
by  a  newcomer  in  a  class  at  the  Civic  Service 
House.  When  asked  what  the  border  of  the 
United  States  meant,  he  said,  "That  is  when 
a  man  marries,  un'  his  wife,  she  take  a  border." 

Certain  back  streets  are  completely  under  the 
control  of  corner  loafers  and  hangouts.  Many 
saloons  and  pool  rooms,  the  loafers'  rendez- 
vous at  night,  are  located  on  residential  streets. 
Children  cannot  escape  their  influence.  The 
demoralizing  effect  of  the  "drunks"  turned  out 
at  the  eleventh  hour  is  immeasurable,  consider- 
ing the  number  of  children  still  out  at  that  time 
of  night. 

The  greatest  abuse  of  the  freedom  of  the 
street  is  charged  against  "college  fellows" — 
genuine  and  counterfeit — let  loose  on  a  Satur- 
day night  after  a  victorious  football  game. 
Their  lawlessness  knows  no  bounds.  The  ef- 
fects of  such  jubilees  are  best  known  to  police 


STREET  HAZARDS  53 

officers,  who  find  the  youth  of  their  respective 
beats  keen  on  taking  after  the  "college  guy." 

The  desire  for  a  "good  time"  is  but  a  thirst 
for  romance,  for  a  little  spice  in  a  humdrum 
life.  The  dangers  which  lurk  in  saloons,  pic- 
ture houses,  dance  halls  and  other  cheap  places 
of  amusement  point  to  the  need  of  higher  recre- 
ation standards. 

Every  city  should  have  a  comprehensive  sys- 
tem of  public  and  private  recreation  supervised 
by  a  recreation  board  with  a  superintendent  in 
charge.  Such  a  board  should  utilize  all  parks, 
playgrounds,  playfields,  schoolhouses,  and  even 
streets,  for  recreation  purposes  to  meet  the 
demands  of  every  element  in  the  community. 
Such  a  board  should  exercise  strict  censorship 
over  all  places  of  amusement,  such  as  moving 
pictures,  burlesque  shows,  dance  halls,  and  pool 
rooms.  Without  discouraging  any  legitimate 
form  of  private  recreation,  it  should  insist  on 
strict  enforcement  of  laws  and  regulations  con- 
trolling commercialized  amusement, — all  the 
while  consciously  striving  to  raise  the  stand- 


54  STREET-LAND 

ards  of  both  public  and  private  recreation. 
The  maintenance  of  such  a  board  of  recreation 
is  one  of  the  most  important  functions  of  every 
community. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  moral  hazards  to  which 
city  children  are  subjected  spring  from  regular 
daily  contact  with  street  vices  while  pursuing 
some  street  trade.  Vending  chewing  gum  or 
flowers  and  hustling  papers  bring  many  dan- 
gers in  their  wake.  The  newsgirl  who  daily 
fights  for  her  corner  opposite  the  saloon  or 
"Gents'  Cafe"  is  unwittingly  taking  greater 
chances  than  you  would  care  to  have  your  own 
child  face. 

I  once  asked  a  Hartford  newsgirl  how  she 
came  to  sell  papers. 

"There's  a  girl  on  my  street,  she  call  me  one 
day.  I  asked  my  mother  if  I  could  go.  She 
wouldn't  let  me.  She  said  in  a  laughin'  way, 
When  it  snows  in  summer-time  and  rains  in 
winter-time,  then  you  can.' 

"But  last  summer,  my  father  got  sick.  And 
when  the  girl  call  us  again — she  use'  to  call 


STREET  HAZARDS  55 

alle  time — my  mother  says,  kin'  o'  cryin',  'Go, 
children,  but  be  good  an'  come  back  soon.' 

"We  made  seven  cents  apiece  the  first  day. 
We  was  green.  Now  my  sister  got  customers 
and  I  got  this  corner.  We  make  fifteen  to 
twenty  cents  apiece, — not  quite  a  dollar  a  week. 
You  see,  we  dussn't  sell  Sunday,  and  we  dussn't 
sell  after  nine  o'clock,  and  we  dussn't  sell  in 
saloons." 

"What's  the  most  you  ever  made  in  one 
day?"  I  asked. 

"Seventy  cents." 

"That's  when  the  man  gave  you  fifty  cents 
for  a  Christmas  present,"  her  sister  added 
shyly. 

"Does  your  mother  mind  your  selling  papers 
now?"  I  asked. 

"No,  she's  use'  to  it.  She  wouldn't  have  no 
talk  about  it.  We  have  to  sell,  my  sister  an' 
me,  'cause  Papa  is  still  sick  and  we  are  a  large 
family,  an'  there  ain't  no  boys  by  us  'ceptin' 
my  kid  brother  what's  just  got  born. 

"But  look't,  Mister,  Lena  an'  Rosa  don't 


56  STREET-LAND 

have  to  sell  'cause  their  father  has  a  pine 
(pawn)  shop  an'  lots  of  jew'lry.  I  don't  mind 
telling  on  'em,  'cause  I'm  mad  on  'em.  They 
block  me  out  every  time.  They're  reg'la' 
bums.  They  get  dressed  somethin'  awful. 
They  go  round  the  barrels  an'  pick  out  the  rag 
clothes  an'  put  'em  on  to  look  poor,  you  know. 
They  don'  want  people  to  know  their  father's 
got  a  jew'lry  store." 

"What  makes  them  sell?"  I  asked. 

"Their  father  an'  mother  makes  them. 
They're  reg'la'  schnorers.  Their  father  is  fat 
an'  their  mother  is  fat,  but  they're  so  skinny, 
like  anythin'.  An'  when  they  get  a  cent,  they 
put  it  way  down  in  their  stockin's  an'  sleep  in 


'em." 


All  our  juvenile  delinquency  codes  first  con- 
demn street  influences.  Then  they  attempt  to 
save  the  children  from  them  by  mere  fiat.  But 
you  cannot  tolerate  a  vice-breeding  saloon  and 
then  forbid  youth  to  enter.  You  may  as  well 
shake  your  finger  at  the  devil.  It  is  too  much 


STREET  HAZARDS  57 

to  ask  our  children  to  live  down  such  para- 
doxes. 

Juvenile  delinquents  usually  come  from  the 
ranks  of  street  children  who  have  been  seek- 
ing fun  and  adventure  and  have  found  to  their 
great  sorrow  that  play  is  no  longer  their  unre- 
stricted privilege.  The  Recreation  Survey  of 
Providence,  Rhode  Island,  revealed  that  many 
boys,  "in  satisfying  their  natural  desire  to  play, 
have  to  be  trespassers  on  private  property  or 
law-breakers  in  the  streets." 

The  Child  Welfare  Exhibit  in  New  York 
showed  that  in  July,  1909,  over  three  hundred 
and  fifty  children  were  arrested  for  playing 
games  on  the  street,  for  baseball  as  well  as 
craps.  Shooting  craps,  pitching  pennies,  play- 
ing cards  in  doorways,  are  not  vicious  in  them- 
selves; but  eventually  they  lead  to  the  juvenile 
court  and  even  beyond. 

It  is  curious  to  find  that  many  restrictions 
imposed  on  play  are  responsible  for  as  many 
forms  of  juvenile  delinquency.  There  are 


58  STREET-LAND 

times  when  a  baseball  game  on  the  street  be- 
comes irresistible  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  it  is 
"agin  the  law."  Every  "don't"  restricting 
play  necessarily  means  broken  rules  and  broken 
hearts. 

Immigrant  children,  ignorant  of  the  laws 
of  the  land,  are  most  likely  to  break  them. 
Too  often  their  parents  suffer  the  consequences. 
A  court  summons — "in  the  name  of  the  COM- 
MONWEALTH to  answer  to  a  complaint" — may 
be  merely  a  matter  of  form  to  some,  but  to  an 
immigrant  mother  it  comes  like  a  shock. 

The  child  who  transgresses  should  not  be 
misunderstood.  The  boy  himself  is  not  always 
to  be  blamed.  Neither  are  his  parents.  A 
study  of  street  gangs  makes  clear  their  influ- 
ence on  delinquency. 

The  East-Side  gangsters — Gyp  the  Blood, 
Leftie  Louie,  and  the  rest  of  the  band — might 
all  have  turned  out  Rabbis  if  they  had  remained 
in  their  native  land.  It  was  the  new  environ- 
ment that  undid  them.  The  synagogues  that 
the  fathers  of  these  notorious  gangsters  built 


717  Children  Arrested  in  One  Month 
Which 

Shall  Children  Cease  Playing  ? 
Shall  the  Law  be  Modified"? 
Shall  we  provide  more  plav  space  ? 
Over  half  the  arrests  were  for  playing  p 


c;  Tivinslerr.  PJA 
The  Xew   York  Child   Welfare  Committee 

Street  Arrests 


STREET  HAZARDS  59 

were  planted  in  the  midst  of  open  vice  protected 
by  the  police.  The  children  were  reared  in  the 
shadow  of  this  "red-light"  district.  Their 
pious  parents  counted  on  Heredity  to  counter- 
act the  influence  of  Environment. 

To  what  extent  the  fall  of  the  gangsters 
was  due  to  environment  is  well  disclosed  in 
their  biographies. 

One  of  the  gangsters  as  a  lad  helped  his 
father  behind  the  bar  of  his  saloon.  The  new 
friends  he  made  there  interested  him  more  than 
school.  The  gang  he  joined  taught  him  how  to 
"play  hookey."  Frequent  punishments  both  at 
home  and  at  school,  far  from  breaking  him  of 
his  habits,  only  strengthened  them.  He  often 
ran  away  to  escape  the  rod  and  at  length  dis- 
appeared for  a  number  of  years.  When  he 
came  back,  he  brought  with  him  police  protec- 
tion. He  established  an  illicit  distillery  which 
brought  him  riches  and,  eventually,  ruin. 

Benny  Snyder,  self-confessed  murderer  of 
Pinchey  Paul,  was  the  victim  of  similar  influ- 
ences. His  confession,  one  of  the  most  re- 


60  STREET-LAND 

markable  human  documents  ever  filed  in  the 
District  Attorney's  office  in  New  York,  reveals 
how  he  and  his  gang  made  their  living  by 
"beating  up"  scabs  at  so  much  per  diem. 
Knifing  a  man  or  "bumping  him  over  the  head 
with  a  pipe"  were  only  casual  incidents  in  a 
day's  work;  and  "although  murder  is  some- 
thing to  make  the  pulse  of  the  novice  beat 
faster,  one  soon  got  over  that." 
Benny  told  his  story  very  simply : 
"I  was  always  a  fellow  that  had  been  knock- 
ing around.  So  a  lot  of  them  bakers  got  a 
liking  to  me,  and  one  time  they  were  supposed 
to  take  a  shop  from  the  bakers,  so  they  took 
me  along.  ...  When  I  got  down  there  they 
said  they  had  some  work  for  me.  ...  So  they 
got  a  liking  to  me  when  they  seen  that  I  was 
good  for  it;  that  I  stick.  So  everybody  got 


me." 


This  was  the  beginning  of  Benny's  experi- 
ence as  a  gunman.  The  final  verdict  in  his 
case  was  manslaughter  in  the  first  degree. 
His  reward  will  be  many  years'  imprisonment. 


STREET  HAZARDS  61 

Federal  investigations  of  conditions  of 
women  and  child  wage-earners  in  the  country 
show  that  a  large  majority  of  delinquent  cases 
come  from  "fair  and  good  homes."  Judge 
Lindsey  therefore  reminds  us  that  the  "influ- 
ence of  the  home  is  by  no  means  the  only  one 
under  which  a  child  is  placed,  especially  in  that 
kind  of  city  life  which  has  come  to  this  country 
in  the  past  fifty  years."  He  says,  further,  that 
the  city  is  "furnishing,  in  many  respects,  a  new 
environment  under  which  most  of  our  children 
are  to  be  reared." 

This  new  environment  is  revolutionizing  the 
lives  of  the  children  before  our  very  eyes.  Yet 
we  make  no  serious  effort  to  get  it  under  social 
control.  We  have  just  seen  that  this  environ- 
ment is  so  full  of  danger  that  nearly  every  ac- 
cident cited  is  entirely  predictable.  Why  then 
wait  until  the  accumulated  results  reach  a 
crisis?  For  years,  the  situation  abroad  was 
such  that  the  great  war  was  entirely  predict- 
able and  preventable.  So  are  street  accidents. 


CHAPTER  III 

NIGHT  CHILDREN 

Tommies  discovery  —  Night  birds — The  midnight 
•fire  —  "Rough-house"  gangs  —  Petty  pilfering  — 
"Bunking  out" — -.Coupon  collectors — The  morning 
after  —  Food  scavengers  —  Tricks  of  the  trade  — 
Begging  — :  Street  vaudeville  —  Moneyitis  —  The  lure 
of  the  cheap  show  —  Pre-election  nights  — *  The  spell 
of  downtown — -"Watchman,  what  of  the  night f" — 
Election  extras  —  Milkmen's  helpers  —  Effects  of 
night  life  —  Uniform  delinquency  laws  —  Street 
Mothers  —  The  curfew  —  The  ash-barrel  gang  — 
Program  for  older  children. 

TOM M  IE  is  the  son  of  a  New  England  school- 
master, one  of  those  rare  schoolmasters  who 
prefers  living  "down  there"  in  the  heart  of  his 
bailiwick.  Like  his  parents,  Tommie  was 
taught  from  infancy  to  retire  soon  after  sun- 
down. 

One  evening,  while  in  his  "nightie"  and  in 

the  midst  of  his  prayers,  he  heard  the  fire 

62 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  63 

alarm.  He  ran  excitedly  into  the  front-room, 
flung  the  window  open — just  in  time  to  catch 
sight  of  the  fleeting  shadows  of  little  children 
running  madly  behind  a  clanging,  hissing  fire- 
engine. 

"Mama,"  he  asked  in  great  surprise,  "are 
these  the  night  children  ?" 

"Night  children" — these  words  are  ex- 
tremely suggestive.  Did  you  ever  hear  of 
night  birds?  There  are  owls,  to  be  sure. 
Those  on  the  Boston  Common,  known  to  sight- 
seers the  country  over,  are  as  cosmopolitan  by 
nature  as  our  city  children.  But  their  reputa- 
tion is  rather  low  in  birdland.  Their  reputed 
wisdom  is  of  a  doubtful  sort,  mostly  derived 
from  a  knowledge  of  things  which  well-bred 
babes  of  birdland  close  their  eyes  to  before 
nightfall.  Nevertheless  the  owl,  in  its  noctur- 
nal habits  and  dark  wisdom,  strikingly  re- 
sembles the  "wise  guy"  of  Street-Land.  The 
alarming  thing  about  city  children  is  that  they 
are  becoming  more  and  more  owlish. 

In   1910  Boston  had  a  million-dollar  fire 


64  STREET-LAND 

which  raged  all  night.  I  was  amazed  at  the 
immense  crowds  of  children  that  turned  out  to 
see  it.  They  came  from  every  section  of 
the  city — these  little  fire-worshipers — in  re- 
sponse to  the  general  alarm.  One  could  see 
them  chasing  breathlessly  after  their  home  fire- 
engines  as  if  their  own  property  were  in  dan- 
ger. They  overran  all  the  streets  and  alleys 
in  the  district,  frequently  attempting  to  break 
through  the  danger  lines.  They  were  every- 
where :  on  wagons,  on  cars,  on  the  "L,"  on  tele- 
phone and  telegraph  poles,  on  water  spouts,  on 
housetops,  perched  high  up  on  water  tanks, 
astride  on  fences  and  billboards.  Little  girls 
and  boys,  veritable  Lilliputians,  were  bobbing 
about  dodging  fire-engines,  patrol  wagons  and 
trolleys. 

Clouds  of  smoke  hung  low  and  heavy  over 
the  entire  neighborhood.  The  engines  spat 
fire.  Sparks  flew  in  all  directions  and  fell  like 
hail  on  the  heads  of  the  vast  crowd  of  men, 
women  and  children.  It  was  a  strange  setting 
for  children  miles  from  home  late  at  night. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  65 

What  kept  them  there?  Some  were  spell- 
bound, awed  by  the  scene  and  the  excitement; 
the  fire,  the  engines,  the  crowds  held  them. 
Others  hooted  and  tooted,  interchanged  signals, 
issued  orders,  shouted  "look  out,"  "move 
quickly" — often  in  mockery  of  the  fire  chiefs, 
more  often  in  dead  earnest.  Many,  in  the 
spirit  of  true  Boy  Scouts,  seemed  anxious  to 
help,  but  were  denied  the  chance. 

The  newsboys,  always  the  most  conspicuous 
citizens  of  Street-Land,  were  there.  As  usual, 
they  were  out  for  business  and  were  trying  to 
make  the  most  of  their  opportunity.  Laws 
and  ordinances  were  flung  to  the  winds. 
Everybody  was  selling  papers — boys  and  girls, 
young  and  old.  Any  attempt  to  stop  them 
would  have  required  the  entire  police  force. 

Messenger  boys  ran  about  with  an  air  of  pro- 
found importance,  their  badges  and  caps  seem- 
ing to  confer  special  privileges  on  them  wher- 
ever they  went. 

Certain  gangs  were  obviously  out  for  mis- 
chief or,  to  put  it  in  their  own  words,  for 


66  STREET-LAND 

"rough-house."  They  hopped  on  cars,  jumped 
on  and  off  patrol  wagons,  dashed  after  fire- 
engines,  honk-honked  automobile  horns, 
screamed  and  howled — behaving  altogether 
like  a  menagerie  let  loose.  They  shifted  with 
the  crowds,  always  ahead  of  them, — bent  on  be- 
ing first  everywhere. 

Other  gangs  were  out  for  more  than  mere 
mischief.  They  were  looking  for  business,  pil- 
fering on  the  quiet.  I  saw  one  boy  running  to- 
ward the  scene  of  action  as  though  he  had  al- 
most missed  his  chance.  This  parasitic  class 
of  boys  always  turns  out  on  such  occasions  and 
preys  on  other  boys  just  as  the  light-fingered 
gentry  prey  on  their  fellow  men. 

As  the  night  wore  on,  one  boy  complained 
of  missing  a  bundle  of  papers;  another  boy 
wept  on  account  of  a  badge  that  had  been 
"swiped"  from  him;  still  another  boy  was  short 
of  change. 

The  favorite  trick  on  a  night  like  this  is  to 
watch  for  the  opportune  moment,  when  a  boy 
is  making  change,  and  then  strike  his  hand. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  67 

Immediately  there  is  a  scramble  for  the  spoils. 
Another  diversion  on  such  occasions  is  the 
"poco"  game.  This  fine  art  leaves  women  mi- 
nus their  money  and  often  their  pocketbooks 
as  well. 

These  pilfering  gangs  are  quite  common  in 
Street-Land  almost  every  night,  though  "busi- 
ness" is  best  on  such  occasions  as  a  fire  or  a 
holiday  or  after  a  football  game. 

Petty  thieves,  the  largest  group  of  night  chil- 
dren, are  a  real  social  menace.  An  English 
prison  commission,  commenting  upon  the  six- 
teen thousand  lads  under  its  care,  says  that 
petty  larceny  is  the  basis  of  professional  crime, 
the  bane  and  puzzle  and  "the  social  problem  of 
this  as  well  as  all  other  civlized  countries." 

The  commission  adds :  "It  is  a  sad  and  sig- 
nificant fact  that  forty  per  cent,  of  these  parti- 
cular offenses  (larceny)  are  committed  by 
young  persons  under  the  age  of  twenty-one." 

The  variety  of  forms  which  stealing  takes 
among  street  children  may  be  judged  from  the 
docket  of  any  juvenile  court.  At  least  a  score 


68  STREET-LAND 

of  indictable  acts  of  larceny  are  commonly 
mentioned, — such  as  "petty  larceny,"  "grand 
larceny,"  "larceny  from  person"  and  "larceny 
from  common  carrier."  "Breaking  and  enter- 
ing in  order  to  steal"  is  especially  done  at  night, 
and  is  the  standing  grievance  of  the  uninsured 
small  shop-keeper. 

This  is  best  illustrated  by  the  familiar  story 
of  the  German  grocer  who  came  to  ask  the 
police  captain  the  meaning  of  "Cheese  it  de 
cop."  "Every  time  I  miss  someding  from  off 
die  vindow,"  he  exclaimed,  "I  hear  die  boys 
says,  'Cheese  it  de  cop,'  and  off  dey  go." 

Other  types  of  night  children  are  in  evidence 
on  different  occasions.  For  example,  there  is 
the  "bunk,"  the  boy  who  is  either  chased  out  or 
has  of  his  own  accord  run  away  from  home — 
too  often  the  Home  of  the  Big  Thirst.  The 
knockabout  frequents  the  Common  in  summer. 
In  winter,  he  generally  sleeps  in  the  warm  en- 
try of  a  large  building. 

At  three  o'clock  one  winter  morning,  I  found 
three  East  Boston  boys  fast  asleep  on  the  grate 


I 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  69 

over  one  of  the  ventilators  of  the  Post-Office 
building.  The  warm  air  coming  up  through 
the  grate  melted  the  snow  as  fast  as  it  fell  and 
kept  that  corner  dry,  while  the  sidewalk 
showed  at  least  a  two-inch  fall.  I  was  inter- 
ested to  find  what  kind  of  air  came  through 
the  grate.  I  feared  it  was  foul. 

"Oh  no,"  said  the  engineer  assuringly,  "this 
air  won't  hurt  them, — just  a  little  hot  air  from 
the  boiler  rooms.  You  see  it's  pretty  hot  there. 
This  here  grate  helps  us  get  rid  of  some  of  the 
heat." 

I  asked  whether  boys  often  slept  there. 

"Yes,"  he  said,  "on  cold  and  snowy  nights. 
It  keeps  them  warm." 

I  was  also  interested  to  know  the  reasons 
why  these  boys  bunked  out.  I  learned  that 
the  two  younger  boys  were  entirely  under  the 
influence  of  the  older  one.  They  "kept  com- 
pany" with  him  all  the  time.  He  came  from 
a  good  American  home,  an  only  child  of 
thirteen.  His  father  was  a  fireman  on  the 
night  shift.  For  months,  regularly  at  nine 


70  STREET-LAND 

o'clock  at  night,  Edward  had  brought  him  his 
dinner  pail.  His  mother,  a  little  woman  al- 
ways feeling  "poorly,"  would  generally  retire 
early,  leaving  the  door  open.  She  was  satisfied 
with  the  usual  injunction:  "Now,  Ed,  don't 
be  late,  and  be  sure  you  lock  the  door." 

Ed  locked  the  door — every  night  a  little 
later.  The  fascination  of  night  life,  especially 
when  the  gay  theater  crowds  came  out,  held 
him.  Now  and  then  he  slept  out.  Before  his 
mother  was  aware  of  it,  bunking  out  had  be- 
come a  habit. 

There  are  boys  in  every  city  who  ply  a  pe- 
culiar trade  well  on  toward  midnight.  These 
boys  are  looking  for  tobacco  coupons  and  cigar- 
ette pictures.  They  lie  in  wait  for  customers 
leaving  cigar  stores  and  inquire  of  each  one, 
"Mister,  got  a  pitchur?" 

The  coupons  have  a  decided  market  value. 
A  given  number  will  secure  a  prize  article — a 
safety  razor  or  a  pocket  book,  for  example. 
Lists  of  these  articles  are  published  by  the  To- 
bacco Trust  and  widely  distributed  free. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  71 

They  are  veritable  traps  for  the  young.  I 
found  that  this  literature  was  more  eagerly 
read  by  boys  than  that  of  the  Anti-Cigarette 
League. 

The  Trust  evidently  knows  boys.  It  cer- 
tainly could  not  have  made  a  stronger  appeal 
to  the  idealism  in  the  boy  than  by  these  two 
means  of  advertising — the  coupon-saving 
scheme  and  the  picture  series.  The  pictures 
are  of  the  most  popular  baseball  players  and 
pugilists  in  the  world,  heroes  of  Street-Land, 
and  are  diligently  collected  even  by  the  best- 
behaved  children.  In  fact,  they  are  bartered, 
sold,  gambled  for  and  treasured  like  gold  or 
"buttons." 

This  class  of  goods  is  tabooed  in  the  class- 
room. Some  teachers  reserve  drawers  for 
such  confiscated  articles.  "I  need  a  trunk 
these  days,"  said  one  teacher,  distressed  by  the 
growth  of  this  craze  for  "pitchurs  and  cou- 
p'ns." 

Some  children  specialize  in  street-car  trans- 
fers, which  they  get  for  nothing  and  sell  for 


72  STREET-LAND 

whatever  is  obtainable.  They  are  always  loit- 
ering about  transfer  stations  and  entrances  to 
the  subway  and  the  Elevated. 

Then  there  are  the  food  scavengers.  Tim 
and  Willie,  for  example,  went  marketing  every 
night  and  generally  returned  with  bags  full 
of  foodstuffs  which  were  consumed  in  the 
home.  They  freely  ate  the  things  they  picked 
up,  but  they  seemed  more  stuffed  than  fed. 
Although  they  are  now  thirteen  and  eleven  re- 
spectively and  were  born  in  this  country,  they 
are  still  in  the  elementary  grades. 

Nevertheless  their  father  is  proud  of  them 
because  they  materially  helped  to  pay  for  the 
property  which  he  owns.  Although  he  is  still 
"land-poor,"  in  the  sense  that  his  equity  in  the 
property  is  insignificant,  he  has  already  stopped 
working  at  the  age  of  forty-five.  His  sons 
are  sure  to  "knock  off"  at  an  even  earlier  age 
because  they  began  much  younger.  But  it  is 
a  puzzle  in  vocational  guidance  as  to  just  what 
their  life  work  will  be. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  73 

Food  scavenging  is  a  typical  "blind-alley" 
occupation  because  actually  pursued  in  blind 
alleys.  Its  nature  and  hazards  are  such  as 
to  discourage  any  but  those  in  dire  need  or 
forced  into  it  through  parental  greed.  The 
food  scavenger  is  always  ahead  of  the  street 
cleaner.  He  helps  materially  to  clean  up  the 
market  on  Saturday  nights  and  on  nights  pre- 
ceding holidays.  Those  are,  in  the  language 
of  the  market  man,  his  "red-letter"  nights.  All 
the  refuse  of  the  pushcart,  fruit-stand  and 
grocery  wagon  is  welcome.  Specked  fruit,  to- 
matoes and  cucumbers  are  either  devoured  on 
the  spot  or  taken  home.  Chicken  heads,  pigs' 
feet,  and  the  like,  are  regarded  as  spoils  of  war 
worth  scrambling  for  every  Saturday  night. 

Food  scavengers  are  mostly  Italian  and  Po- 
lish boys,  all  of  them  too  young  to  engage  in 
more  profitable  employment.  They  knock 
about  the  market  with  their  priceless  pickings 
stored  away  in  the  dirty  canvas  bags  slung 
over  their  shoulders.  During  the  day  and  the 


74  STREET-LAND 

early  part  of  the  evening,  there  is  very  little 
legitimate  business  and  they  are  frequently  re- 
duced to  stealing. 

There  are  more  tricks  in  this  trade  than  you 
may  imagine.  "Stalls"  are  very  common. 
One  boy  acts  the  part  of  a  beggar,  engaging  the 
attention  of  the  stand-keeper  while  the  others 
run  away  with  the  "dope"  from  the  rear.  A 
"row"  is  always  effective.  The  idea  is  to 
"start  something."  The  pushcart  man,  a 
"greenhorn,"  cannot  bear  to  see  the  boys  pum- 
mel each  other  and  earnestly  tries  to  part  them. 
The  boys  then  turn  upon  him  and,  in  the  melee, 
the  leaders  make  away  with  the  spoils. 

Street  boys,  as  a  rule,  have  little  use  for  their 
sisters;  but  when  scavenging,  sisters  can  help 
"a  lot."  At  eleven  o'clock  when  the  market  is 
closing,  you  may  see  dozens  of  children  busy  as 
ants,  loading,  lifting  and  lugging  bagfuls  of 
"stuff"  which  would  hardly  pass  the  test  of  the 
Pure  Food  Inspector.  No  one  has  yet  meas- 
ured the  amount  of  harm  which  these  foods,  as 


i 


Photograph  by  Lewis    W.  Nine  for  the  National  Child  Labor  Co 

Willie,  the  Food  Scavenger 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  75 

well  as  the  scavenging,  are  doing  to  these  chil- 
dren and  their  families. 

Snatching  from  passing  teams  is  also  popu- 
lar, especially  in  back  streets  in  the  dark.  This 
demonstrates  Stevenson's  doctrine  that  a  given 
setting  almost  irresistibly  invites  its  special 
kind  of  law-breaking.  The  theory  seems  to 
be  that  he  who  runs  may  steal ;  that  is,  provided 
he  can  catch  up  with  the  team.  Bananas  and 
coal  are  most  easily  stolen.  The  simplest 
scheme  is  for  one  boy  to  get  on  the  wagon  in 
the  rear  and  drop  the  bananas  along  the  way 
just  as  the  fox  in  the  fable  dropped  the  fish. 
His  pal  picks  them  up. 

The  pilferer  may  get  a  taste  of  the  whip,  but 
that  must  be  put  up  with  as  one  of  the  hazards 
of  the  profession.  "It's  all  in  a  day's  work," 
the  gang  leader  tells  you  philosophically.  Often 
enough,  the  wagon  is  too  long  for  the  reach  of 
the  whip.  That  is  when  the  situation  is  both 
exciting  and  amusing.  The  helpless  driver 
"cusses"  and  scolds  in  vain.  At  last  he  halts 


76  STREET-LAND 

his  team  ready  to  jump.  But  the  boy  jumps 
first,  of  course,  and  gets  away  with  the  fruit. 

Begging  still  persists  in  Street-Land. 
"Mister,  gimme  a  penny"  is  the  pathetic  plea 
which  comes  from  under  your  elbow  as  you  ap- 
proach the  restaurant  or  the  theater,  and  in- 
stinctively your  hand  goes  into  your  pocket. 

Another  kind  of  begging  is  too  much  encour- 
aged by  tender-hearted  evening  folk.  Well- 
organized  bands  make  "easy  money"  by  giving 
vaudeville  performances,  acrobatic  stunts  and 
song-and-dance  acts,  in  the  street  near  the- 
aters, dance  halls  and  wherever  there  is  a 
chance  for  a  crowd.  These  troupes  are  well 
balanced  professionally:  the  Italian  boy  is  star 
singer  and  spellbinder;  the  Jewish  boy  acts  as 
comedian  at  the  expense  of  the  Chosen  People ; 
and  the  Irish  boy  is  the  somersault  professor. 

Curiosity  draws  the  crowd.  Sympathy  com- 
bined with  real  interest  holds  it  through  the 
whole  entertainment  in  spite  of  previous  en- 
gagements. This  all-star  cast  performs  the 
monkey  dance,  the  buck-and-wing  and  the 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  77 

usual  somersaults.  Between  the  acts,  come 
"smart  hits"  which  always  take  with  this  au- 
dience, "ragtime  crazy"  like  all  street  folk. 
"Have  a  Heart,"  "My  Harem,"  "It's  a  Bear," 
are  present-day  favorites.  It  is  not  unusual  to 
find  a  teacher  delayed  by  such  a  refrain : 

"  Once  I  played  truant  just  for  fun, 

But  it  really  didn't  matter,  so  to  speak ; 

For  I  learnt  more  from  Billy  on  the  day  we  stayed 

away 
Than  Teacher  could  have  taught  me  in  a  week." 

These  sophisticated  street  performers  act 
their  parts  with  great  gusto,  always  ending 
with  an  air  of  satisfaction  and  expectancy 
which,  in  plain  language,  means  a  well-de- 
served tip — a  nickel  or  a  dime. 

"Aren't  they  clever  ?"  is  the  comment  of  the 
crowd,  unconscious  of  the  waste  of  it  all.  A 
sudden  shower  of  pennies,  nickels  and  dimes 
from  the  appreciative  spectators  pours  upon 
the  entertainers  as  compensation  for  profes- 
sional services  rendered. 

Peter  Stone,  of  "Stone  and  Ward"  fame,  al- 


78  STREET-LAND 

most  danced  his  heels  off  in  cellars  and  on 
street  corners,  always  in  expectancy.  He  died 
at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  just  as  he  was  being 
booked  for  the  Keith  Circuit  at  a  salary  of 
one  hundred  dollars  a  week.  This  fact  is  un- 
known to  his  many  street  admirers,  whose 
excessive  doses  of  pennies  brought  on  acute 
Moneyitis,  the  most  common  street  disease. 

"Pumpkin  pie  killed  him/'  his  mother  insists. 
To  be  sure,  pumpkin  pie  isn't  "kosher" ;  but  the 
explanation  is  too  simple. 

Going  to  the  movies  is  the  latest  craze  in 
Street-Land.  Moving  pictures  are  food  and 
drink  to  most  city  children.  Mere  laws  cannot 
keep  them  away.  Neither  do  considerations  of 
time,  place  or  lack  of  the  wherewithal. 

One  evening  after  nine  o'clock,  I  saw  a  frail 
boy  of  eight  standing  in  front  of  a  picture  the- 
ater in  Chinatown  craning  his  neck  to  see 
through  the  transom. 

"Are  you  trying  to  see  the  moving  pictures?" 
I  asked. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  79 

"I  am  seeing  them/'  he  answered  trium- 
phantly. 

To  see  a  show  is  only  one  degree  less  won- 
derful to  children  than  to  be  in  a  show.  The 
long  lines  of  street  folk  in  front  of  moving  pic- 
ture and  vaudeville  houses — all  candidates  for 
rush  seats — demonstrate  the  truth  of  which 
Thoreau  so  forcibly  reminds  us,  that  the  rea- 
son why  we  crave  art  and  drama  is  because 
there  is  something  of  the  artist  and  the  drama- 
tist in  us  all.  The  officer  who  arrested  Johnny 
for  breaking  a  skylight  evidently  never  read 
Thoreau.  Otherwise  his  charge  would  have 
been,  not  merely  window-breaking,  but  win- 
dow-breaking with  the  idea  of  stealing  a  "look- 
in"  which  the  frosted  skylight  made  impossi- 
ble. Yet  what  is  a  boy  to  do  when  he  hasn't 
even  the  price  of  a  rush  seat? 

Most  fortunate  are  the  fourteen-to-sixteen- 
year-olds  who  are  earning  their  first  wages. 
They  find  they  have  also  earned  their  independ- 
ence and  the  right  to  smoke  and  chew  and 


8o  STREET-LAND 

spit  like  the  men  with  whom  they  proudly  stand 
in  the  gallery  line. 

The  boys  look  tired  and  restless  at  the  delay 
which  keeps  them  from  the  fun  to  which  they 
are  "blowing"  themselves.  The  show  is  apt  to 
be  disappointing  as  a  whole.  It  was  never  in- 
tended for  them  and  barely  represents  their 
money's  worth.  Nevertheless  they  revel  in  the 
cheap  heroics  characteristic  of  most  of  the  dime 
shows  now  offered.  These  burlesque  houses 
are  worse  than  the  movies.  Their  main  func- 
tion evidently  is  to  make  "vice  attractive"  at 
the  matinee  and  "virtue  abominable"  in  the 
evening. 

Three  hours  spent  in  the  vitiating  air  of  the 
gallery  destroy,  rather  than  re-create,  the  en- 
ergy of  working  lads.  I  have  seen  them  file 
out  of  the  theater  pale-faced  and  exhausted, 
glad  to  get  a  breath  of  air  again.  As  the  au- 
dience empties  into  the  street,  one  immediately 
notices  the  foul  air  rushing  out  with  it.  But 
few  of  us  note  the  moral  atmosphere  in  which 
the  crowd  moves  about. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN 


81 


Feasting  on  a  burlesque  show  meant  for 
"men  only,"  with 

ff FORTY  BURLESQUERS  IN  THE  CAST — FORTY" 

as  the  chief  attraction,  has  its  come-backs. 
The  reaction  on  the  boys  shows  itself  on  the 
way  home.  They  imitate  the  "stage  drunk' ' 
and  good-naturedly  beat  the  "kids"  on  the 
street  after  the  manner  of  the  villain.  They 
do  the  clog  dance  on  street  corners  until  the 
wee  hours  of  the  morning  just  as  it  was  done  on 
the  stage. 

To  appreciate  the  full  significance  of  this 
theater-going  habit,  it  is  necesary  to  bear  in 
mind  that  these  theaters  are  always  the  cheap- 
est in  more  than  one  sense.  Located  in  the 
worst  districts,  they  attract  characteristic  "I 
should  worry"  crowds.  The  Bowdoin  Square 
region  of  Boston,  for  example,  like  the  Bowery 
of  New  York,  is  noted  for  its  rampant  immor- 
ality. In  such  districts  are  located  the  most 
notorious  show-houses  in  the  city.  Five  or  six 
theaters  almost  next  to  one  another  nightly  let 
loose  their  crowds  into  the  streets. 


82  STREET-LAND 

Conditions  are  then  ripe  for  mob  violence. 
Many  fights  and  arrests  take  place.  Drunken 
sailors  and  bad  women  bargain  in  the  open. 
What  the  boys  have  seen  inside  the  theater,  far 
from  strengthening  them  against  temptations 
outside,  rather  whets  their  interest.  I  have  no- 
ticed that  many  boys  linger  late  in  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  theaters  waiting  for  something 
to  happen. 

Nearer  home,  street  life  at  night  is  much 
more  wholesome,  if  not  so  picturesque.  Life 
is  more  real,  more  normal.  Yet  there  are  gala 
occasions  which  serve  to  stimulate  children's 
imaginations. 

I  was  always  especially  interested  in  pre- 
election nights  in  Street-Land.  Such  nights 
bring  out  hosts  of  little  citizens,  who  love  pa- 
rades, torchlights  and  brass  bands  fully  as 
much  as  adult  citizens.  Indeed  they  play  a 
more  important  part  in  all  open-air  rallies  than 
their  fathers.  They  not  only  take  sides,  but 
supply  most  of  the  enthusiasm  (as  measured 
by  noise)  and  set  off  all  the  fire-works.  The 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  83 

custom,  now  waning,  of  lighting  huge  bon- 
fires on  such  nights  used  to  keep  many  children 
busy  for  days  gathering  wood. 

Now  that  they  are  denied  this  form  of  par- 
ticipation, they  hold  elections  of  their  own. 
This  game  of  politics,  which  is  growing  in 
popularity,  imitates  all  the  virtues  and  vices  of 
the  real  game  men  play.  The  boys  duplicate 
all  the  parties,  often  drawing  lines  of  sex  and 
color  and  race  just  as  their  elders  are  in  the 
habit  of  doing;  while  groups  of  girls  do  the 
heckling  in  militant  fashion. 

On  residential  streets,  children  are  out  late 
at  night  for  all  kinds  of  legitimate  reasons. 
Some  are  on  errands  of  love  and  mercy:  to 
summon  the  doctor  or  priest  or  rabbi.  Some 
are  on  the  way  to  post-office  or  grocery. 
Others  are  returning  from  a  visit  or  from 
work.  Settlement  and  night-school  crowds 
lend  special  liveliness  to  the  procession. 

Legions  are  lingering  on  the  streets  because 
they  wish  to  hear  and  see  things.  They  are 
keen  on  learning  all  about  Street-Land  and  de- 


84  STREET-LAND 

termined  to  rediscover  America  in  a  very  real 
sense.  These  pioneers,  especially  the  children 
of  the  newcomers,  wake  early  and  wander 
about  late,  attracted  and  mystified  by  the  won- 
ders of  downtown.  They  are  charmed  by  the 
window-shows,  the  street  scenes  and  the  hurdy- 
gurdy  music. 

Night  life  is  eventful.  It  brings  to  youth 
strange  experiences  which  are  out  of  keeping 
with  its  daily  life  in  home  and  school.  It 
whets  new  appetites  which  cannot  be  satisfied 
legitimately.  The  greatest  dangers  of  night 
life  are  its  excesses.  No  matter  how  late  at 
night  it  was,  I  always  found  some  children 
running  about,  fighting  and  making  noise. 
They  were  often  in  dangerous  places,  far  away 
from  home  and  behaving  altogether  after  the 
manner  of  that  latest  city  breed,  the  joy- 
riders. 

Where  were  their  parents?  Asleep?  At 
work  ?  Drunk  ?  And  not  another  soul  to  watch 
over  these  stray  little  night  folk  of  Street-Land ! 
No  one  to  ask  the  Officer  of  the  Night  Shift 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  85 

concerning  these  children  of  men,  as  was  asked 
of  old,  "Watchman,  what  of  the  night?" 

I  recall  one  boy  who  had  a  fair  reputation 
for  conduct,  attendance  and  scholarship  in 
school.  But  he  was  in  the  habit  of  loitering 
about  railroad  stations.  One  night  he  was  in- 
duced to  sell  election  extras  until  two  o'clock. 
He  came  home  with  sixty  cents  and  a  severe 
case  of  pneumonia  which 'kept  him  in  bed  for 
a  month.  When  he  returned  to  school,  he  was 
unable  to  catch  up  in  his  studies;  and  he  soon 
joined  the  ranks  of  the  school  deserters.  His 
mother  cursed  election  nights  instead  of  blam- 
ing herself. 

JParents  are^ftenjajgejyjx^la^ 
£gsults.  To  illustrate.  Now  and  then,  com- 
plaints came  to  me  from  teachers  that  certain 
boys  fell  fast  asleep  on  their  desks  less  than 
half  an  hour  after  coming  to  school  in  the 
morning.  Investigation  showed  that  these 
boys  worked  on  milk  carts;  that  their  parents 
waked  them  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  in 
answer  to  the  customary  door  knock  or  whistle ; 


86  STREET-LAND 

and  that  the  boys  returned  home  at  eight 
o'clock,  often  with  a  quart  of  milk  as  the  only 
compensation.  A  few  convictions  stopped  this 
practice, — milk-drivers  found  it  unprofitable. 
The  boys^  parents,  however,  went  unpunishejJL 

It  must  be  evident  that  the  evil  effects  of 
night  life  are  as  certain  as  its  challenge  is  ir- 
resistible. In  the  language  of  Kingsley's 
"Water  Babies/'  there  are  thirty-seven  or 
thirty-nine  reasons  ("one  is  not  sure  which") 
against  this  night  wandering. 

Night  life  militates  against  children's  health 
and  growth  to  a  greater  extent  than  has  yet 
been  realized.  Overstimulation,  in  place  of 
the  sleep  and  rest  which  growing  children  need, 
tends  to  undermine  even  the  strongest  consti- 
tutions. It  needs  no  physiologist  to  perceive 
that  the  ravages  of  night  life  help  materially 
to  reduce  measurements  of  weight,  height  and 
chest,  and  to  weaken  hearts,  lungs  and  eyes. 
Pale  faces  and  languid  bearing  characterize 
night  children  of  Street-Land. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  87 

Moreover,  their  education  suffers.  The 
habit  of  burning  the  midnight  oil  is  generally 
disapproved  of  among  students.  What  shall 
we  say  of  the  tendency  among  city  children 
toward  burning  the  candle  at  both  ends,  and 
to  no  purpose?  Children  who  are  out  until 
midnight  must  report  at  school  the  next  morn- 
ing although  tired  and  mentally  dull.  The  red- 
eyed  member  of  the  ungraded  class  who  stayed 
for  the  second  show  at  the  movies  does  not  com- 
plain of  his  headache  but  boasts  of  his  "good 
time."  The  seeds  of  education  are  conse- 
quently sown  upon  sterile  ground. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  children  are  tardy  or 
truant,  they  are  entering  upon  a  career  which 
too  often  ends  in  the  reformatory. 

Night  life  destroys  habits  of  industry.  The 
fresh  recruits  of  the  factories  not  only  report 
in  the  morning  with  the  "blues,"  but  gradually 
find  themselves  unable  to  do  their  work  with 
a  will — and  success.  "Walking  the  bricks"  is 
the  inevitable  result.  Thus  industry  gives  way 


88  STREET-LAND 

to  loitering  and  loafing  which  become  rooted 
into  habit. 

It  is  significant  that  many  of  the  activities 
of  night  children  are  acts  of  delinquency  un- 
der all  model  juvenile  delinquency  codes,  such 
as  the  1913  law  of  Ohio.  Not  only  do  these 
laws  expressly  declare  wandering  about  the 
streets  at  night  a  delinquent  act,  but  they  in- 
clude many  related  acts, — such  as  flipping  cars, 
wandering  about  railroad  yards,  visiting  sa- 
loons, pool  rooms  and  billiard  rooms,  using  bad 
language  or  cigarettes,  visiting  penny  arcades 
or  moving  picture  shows  where  vulgar  and  in- 
decent pictures  are  exhibited. 

As  night  comes  on,  child  life  in  Street-Land 
assumes  strange  forms.  There  are  distinct 
tendencies  toward  reversion — to  the  monkey 
stage,  for  instance,  which  takes  the  form  of 
post-climbing,  running  on  all  fours  or  swinging 
aimlessly  from  the  iron  railings  of  basement 
saloons.  Often  one  notices  a  revival  of  the 
life  of  our  Indian  predecessors,  with  all  its 
hooting  and  tooting  and  ground-listening. 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  89 

Street  fights  and  raids  echo  the  days  of  bar- 
baric struggle.  Gangs  reach  out  for  suprem- 
acy and  fight  with  five-and-ten-cent  swords  and 
pistols.  Such  acts  are  unchecked  by  conscience 
from  within  or  by  authority  from  without. 
The  absence  of  both  inner  and  outer  checks 
suggests  not  only  the  true  reason  but  the  rem- 
edy. 

Chicago,  always  true  to  its  motto  "I  will," 
was  the  first  of  the  leading  cities  to  appoint  a 
squad  of  policewomen  "to  keep  young  folk  off 
the  street  late  at  night/'  At  first,  they  were 
considered  only  for  the  "red-light"  districts; 
but  it  was  finally  decided  that  streets,  parks, 
and  other  places  of  recreation — the  rendezvous 
of  young  people,  especially  at  night — are  even 
more  important.  Thus  the  Police  Matron,  or 
Street  Mother,  is  here  at  last.  Her  arrival 
1  marks  the  first  important  step  in  the  working 
out  of  a  system  of  street  supervision  of  child 
life. 

Time  was  when  this  control  was  attempted 
in  small  towns  by  means  of  the  so-called  cur- 


90  STREET-LAND 

few  or  bed-time  law,  generally  a  nine  o'clock 
ordinance  for  children  under  fourteen.  Such 
ordinances  are  common  in  smaller  cities  and 
towns  where,  perchance,  they  can  be  enforced. 
But  where  no  machinery  for  enforcing  such 
regulations  is  provided,  these  ordinances  gen- 
erally fail.  It  is  equally  true  that  non-official 
attempts  to  enforce  purely  ethical  standards  of 
conduct  often  fail.  In  this  country,  even  chil- 
dren are  apt  to  challenge  your  authority. 

An  incident  will  prove  this  better  than  argu- 
ment. On  one  occasion,  I  saw  a  dozen  children 
loitering  around  a  refuse  barrel,  all  scrambling 
for  a  chance  to  dig  into  its  hidden  treasures. 
Neither  the  barrel  nor  the  environment  seemed 
to  me  especially  desirable  for  children.  I  or- 
dered them  off,  suggesting  home  as  a  goal. 
They  backed  away  ten  feet  in  a  straggling  line, 
faced  about  and  eyed  me  with  obvious  dissatis- 
faction. Then  the  leader,  who  seemed  not 
older  than  nine,  sized  me  up  for  a  moment. 

"Come  on,  kids,"  he  then  called  out  defiantly. 
"He  ain't  nothin'." 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  91 

They  were  certainly  within  their  "rights" 
even  though  they  were  in  the  wrong  place  at 
the  wrong  time.  What  every  city  and  town 
really  needs  is  both  a  bed-time  law  and  a  Street 
Mother  to  enforce  it. 

The  most  effective  enforcement  of  a  curfew 
law  will  still  leave  children  under  fourteen  on 
the  street  until  nine  o'clock  and  children  over 
fourteen  as  long  as  they  can  or  care  to  re- 
main. There  is  therefore  no  danger  that  the 
curfew  "will  entirely  dispense  with  parental 
authority,"  as  some  people  imagine.  Indeed 
homes,  schools,  settlements,  churches,  and  the 
many  other  beneficent  child-saving  agencies, 
will  have  to  work,  together  better  than  they 
ever  did  before  in  order  to  compete  suc- 
cessfully with  the  street  both  day  and 
night. 

These  agencies  should  be  reenf  orced  in  every 
State  in  the  Union  by  a  strong  delinquency  law 
embodying  a  curfew  provision.  Such  a  law 
in  the  hands  of  a  squad  of  Street  Mothers  or 
Protective  Agents  would  go  a  great  way  in 


92  STREET-LAND 

keeping  off  the  streets  little  children  away  from 
home  after  supper-time. 

In  some  cities,  school  yards,  roofs  and  play- 
grounds are  kept  open  evenings,  weather  per- 
mitting, for  free  play  under  proper  supervision. 
Social  settlements,  and  some  kindred  institu- 
tions, are  not  only  caring  for  the  little  folk 
whose  homes  fail  to  render  such  service  for 
one  reason  or  another,  but  are  courageously 
setting  to  work  to  remove  such  reasons. 

A  few  cities  are  doing  more  than  censoring 
the  performances  at  private  moving-picture  and 
vaudeville  houses.  Such  houses,  for  children 
as  well  as  adults,  are  sometimes  controlled,  if 
not  owned,  by  the  municipality  or  by  the  com- 
munity as  a  unit.  In  Germany,  for  example, 
before  the  war,  the  Naturtheateren  more  than 
paid  expenses.  The  cast  was  usually  made  up 
of  men,  women  and  children  from  the  commun- 
ity. 

Our  evening  schools,  in  many  cases,  render 
the  services  both  of  the  German  continuation 
schools  and  the  American  social  centers  at 


NIGHT  CHILDREN  93 

their  best.  Many  of  these  centers  are  kept 
open  all  the  year  round  and  are  intelligently 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  changing  seasons. 
These  and  similar  social  agencies  are  learning 
to  provide  the  means  for  recreation  and  amuse- 
ment so  much  in  demand  without  the  overstim- 
ulation  always  produced  by  the  commercial- 
ized houses  which  serve  the  same  purpose  but 
are  designed  for  profit. 

American  cities  are  gradually  overcoming 
their  stolid  indifference  to  the  many  forms  of 
commercialized  amusement  which  take  advan- 
tage of  the  innocent  desire  of  youth  for  fun 
and  a  taste  of  the  joy  of  living.  They  have 
discovered  that  these  amusements  often  lead 
the  young  to  the  "red-light"  districts  lying  just 
beyond  the  amusement  centers.  This  tardy 
recognition  of  the  need  of  providing  wholesome 
recreation  is  one  of  the  great  indictments  made 
against  the  city  by  recent  vice  commissions. 
But  the  very  creation  of  such  commissions 
records  a  keener  social  conscience  and  the  dawn 
of  a  higher  order  of  city  life. 


CHAPTER  IV 

SCHOOL  DESERTERS 

School  attendance  and  desertion  —  Taking  after 
grown-up  deserters  —  How  Johnny  played  truant  — 
Origin  of  compulsory  education  laws  —  Causes  of 
truancy  —  Attitude  of  educators  fifty  years  ago  — 
Testimony  of  truants — The  play-boy  of  Street-Land 
—  Rebellion  against  school  inaction  —  Truancy  no 
longer  criminal  —  The  lesson  of  the  training  school  — 
The  call  of  outdoors  —  School  desertion  a  social 
problem  —  Constructive  program  for  combating  tru- 
ancy. 

FOR  every  child  that  is  graduated  from  a 
grammar  school,  another  child  drops  out, 
mainly  in  disgust  or  despair. 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick  tells  us  that  about  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  children  drop  out 
annually  as  against  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou- 
sand who  are  graduated.  Less  than  one  boy  in 
five  completes  all  the  grammar  grades.  The 
majority  who  leave  school  fail  to  complete  the 

94 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  95 

sixth  grade.  A  large  minority  desert  school 
while  still  in  the  ungraded  classes. 

The  most  serious  phase  of  this  wholesale 
school  desertion  is  truancy,  which  means  stay- 
ing away  from  school  during  the  compulsory 
school  period.  Truancy,  in  one  sense,  is  but 
another  form  of  loafing,  and  it  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  truants  are  merely  taking  after  grown- 
ups. The  mother  who  locks  her  child  in  the 
house  and  goes  off  to  the  movies,  only  to  find 
her  son  Johnny  there  ahead  of  her,  suddenly 
realizes  the  truth  that  the  apple  does  not  fall 
far  from  the  tree.  It  is  customary  in  such  a 
case  to  blame  the  movies,  and  rightly  so. 

A  moving  picture  house  once  put  out  an  al- 
luring sign — "How  Johnny  Played  Truant." 
The  doors  opened  at  two  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon. I  went  in  and  found  at  least  a  dozen 
Johnnies  seated  in  front-row  orchestra  seats, 
all  eager  to  learn  how  Johnny  played  truant. 
This  information  added  to  their  own  experi- 
ences made  their  education  in  the  matter  almost 
perfect, 


96  STREET-LAND 

Truancy  is  a  by-product  of  compulsory  edu- 
cation laws.  The  theory  of  our  American 
democracy  necessarily  implies  intelligent  citi- 
zenship. The  greatest  instrument  for  raising 
the  general  level  of  intelligence  is  the  public 
school.  Hence  our  ideal  of  universal  educa- 
tion. 

"After  God  carried  us  to  New  England/' 
reads  the  famous  Harvard  tablet,  "and  after 
we  had  builded  our  houses,  provided  necessar- 
ies for  our  livelihood,  reared  convenient  places 
for  God's  worship  and  settled  the  civil  govern- 
ment, one  of  the  next  things  we  longed  for  and 
looked  after  was  to  advance  learning  and  per- 
petuate it  to  posterity." 

This  desire  had  its  concrete  expression  in  a 
law  passed  as  early  as  1642,  which  put  a  ban 
on  barbarism  and  ignorance.  "Forasmuch  as 
the  good  education  of  children  is  of  singular 
behoof  and  benefit  to  any  commonwealth,  and 
whereas  many  parents  and  masters  are  too  in- 
dulgent and  negligent  of  their  duty  in  this 
kind/'  the  selectmen  were  ordered  by  the  Gen  - 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  97 

eral  Court  to  have  a  vigilant  eye  over  their 
"brethren  and  'neighbors  to  see  that  none  of 
them  shall  suffer  so  much  barbarism  in  any  of 
their  families  as  not  to  endeavor  to  teach,  by 
themselves  or  others,  their  children  and  ap- 
prentices so  much  learning  as  may  enable  them 
perfectly  to  read  the  English  tongue,  and 
knowledge  of  the  capital  laws ;  upon  penalty  of 
twenty  shillings  for  every  neglected  child." 

Neither  Massachusetts,  with  her  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years'  experience  in  compulsory 
education,  nor  any  other  State,  however  pro- 
gressive, has  yet  evolved  a  successful  plan  for 
combating  truancy.  Before  this  can  be  ac- 
complished we  must  learn  the  reasons  why  chil- 
dren leave  school. 

Fifty  years  ago,  Massachusetts  educators 
began  to  look  for  causes.  Early  investigators 
regarded  truancy  as  a  phase  of  "human  de- 
pravity." They  called  it  "juvenile  depravity/' 
Playing  truant  was  considered  a  crime.  In 
1846,  when  truancy  first  loomed  up  as  a  prob- 
lem, a  learned  educator  charged  parents  with 


98  STREET-LAND 

"aiding  and  abetting  their  children  in  this 
crime."  Later  investigations  placed  the  blame 
on  parents'  poverty,  intemperance,  indifference, 
and  the  like. 

The  opinion  of  present-day  officials  is  more 
intelligent,  more  socialized.  A  former  super- 
intendent of  the  Boston  Parental  School,  for 
example,  says,  "Home  environment  will  ac- 
count for  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  all  cases  of 
truants.  Truants  from  good  homes  are  gener- 
ally abnormal."  Truant  and  probation  officers 
and  school  visitors  now  blame  both  the  home 
and  the  street.  Fifty  years  ago,  the  child 
shouldered  most  of  the  blame.  Today  the  tru- 
ant, like  the  juvenile  offender,  is  no  longer  con- 
sidered a  criminal.  The  phrase  "juvenile  de- 
pravity" has  entirely  dropped  out  of  our  official 
vernacular.  This  is  in  accord  with  the  new 
view  that  the  child  needs  protection  rather 
thanjpunishment 

The  emphasis  on  the  influence  of  home  and 
street  is  significant.  But  many  other  influ- 
ences affect  the  problem.  The  methods  of 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  99 

combating  truancy  are  therefore  far  from 
simple.  Here  is  the  story  of  a  school  deserter 
in  a  nutshell.  It  discloses  many  home  and 
street  influences  and  certainly  hints  at  more 
than  one  cause,  the  search  for  which  charac- 
terized all  early  investigations. 

F.  W.  had  been  previously  arrested  for  lar- 
ceny and  fined  five  dollars.  He  was  the  oldest 
in  the  family  and  had  a  brother  eight  years  old 
and  a  sister  ten.  They  lived  in  a  tenement  of 
four  rooms  for  which  they  paid  eight  dollars 
a  month.  The  building  was  in  bad  condition 
and  the  rooms  unclean  and  poorly  furnished. 
In  the  same  tenement  lived  a  boy  who  had 
formerly  been  committed  for  truancy.  The 
father  was  a  longshoreman,  irregularly  em- 
ployed. He  had  been  on  the  "Island"  twice 
for  drunkenness.  The  mother  worked  out  two 
days  a  week,  earning  three  dollars  and  a  half. 
She  was  untidy  and  lacked  energy,  although 
she  was  considered  respectable.  The  neigh- 
borhood was  poor ;  the  street,  dirty  and  narrow. 
The  leaders  of  some  of  the  gangs  which  ruled 


ioo  STREET-LAND 

the  district  were  "proud  of  their  bad  records." 
Heretofore  little  effort  has  been  made  to  get 
at  the  causes  of  truancy  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  truants  themselves.  Here  are  their 
views  expressed  in  compositions  written  in  a 
truant  school : 

"I  wanted  to  stay  out  of  school  because 
every  time  my  work  was  wrong,  the  teacher  hit 


me." 


FELIX  B.  (French),  age  8  years. 


"I  played  truant  because  I  could  not  do  the 
work  required  of  me.  Another  reason  was 
that  I  did  not  have  the  clothes.  Another  was 
that  the  boys  all  hit  me  because  I  did  not  have 
good  clothes.  Sometimes  my  mother  had  to 
go  with  me  because  the  boys  hit  me." 

EDWARD  R.  (English),  age  15  years. 

"I  played  truant  because  I  was  to  get  a  beat- 
ing at  school.  I  wanted  to  help  my  father.  I 
went  to  my  brother's  farm  not  to  go  to  school. 
I  stayed  there  a  year  and  a  half.  When  I  came 
back  I  did  not  go  to  school  because  I  was 
ashamed  I  was  so  big." 

ABRAHAM  K.  (Jewish),  age  15  years. 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  101 

"I  played  truant  because  I  did  not  like  to  go 
to  school  when  I  was  a  small  boy.  And  I 
played  truant  because  I  had  to  mind  my  father's 
shoe  shine  shop." 

ANGELO  P.  (Italian),  age  15  years. 

"I  played  truant  because  I  did  not  like  the 
teacher.  My  mother  would  hit  me  when  I 
came  home.  Sometimes  I  was  beaten  and 
would  not  go  in  all  night.  I  stayed  on  the  roof 
all  night." 

ABRAHAM  A.  (Jewish),  age  9  years. 

Two  hundred  and  eighty-two  boys  wrote 
similar  compositions.  The  classified  results 
are  as  follows : 

Disliked  study,  lessons  too  hard,  thirty-six; 
Teacher  cross,  twenty-seven; 
Fear  of  punishment  at  school,  twenty-three ; 
To  attend  theater  and  ball  games,  eighty- 
two; 

To  hang  around  wharves,  three ; 
Influenced  by  older  boys,  seventy; 
To  work,  fourteen; 
To  play,  fourteen; 
To  attend  fair,  five ; 
To  steal,  two ; 
To  help  mother,  fourteen ; 


102  STREET-LAND 

To  help  take  care  of  sister,  and 
For  miscellaneous  reasons,  six. 

It  is  significant  that  eighty-six  truants,  or 
about  thirty  per  cent.,  "played  hookey"  on  ac- 
count of  school  conditions. 


The  letters  also  showed  that  twenty-eight,  or 
ten  per  cent.,  were  wholly  or  partly  incapaci- 
tated for  school  work  by  defective  hearing  or 
sight;  that  243  smoked  (149  habitually);  90 
attended  Sunday  school;  131  had  attended  kin- 
dergarten; 141  were  club  members;  143  had 
been  visited  at  their  homes  by  teachers;  209 
were  members  of  gangs;  183  bunked  out  more 
or  less;  126  stole  money;  103  earned  money; 
and  73  hacl  older  brothers  who  had  never 
played  truant. 

The  ages  of  these  boys  varied  from  seven  to 
fifteen  years,  boys  thirteen  years  old  constitut- 
ing the  largest  group.  The  principal  races 
represented  were  Irish,  Italian  and  Jewish  (in 
the  order  of  their  numerical  importance).  It 
is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  it  is  not  the  immigrant 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  103 

child,  but  the  native-born  child  of  immigrant 
•  parents  who  usually  plays  truant. 

The  mixture  of  good  and  bad  in  the  school 
deserter  is  only  human.  There  are  noted 
school  experts  who  would  have  us  believe  that 
truants  are,  as  a  class,  physically,  mentally  and 
morally  inferior  to  non-truants.  Perhaps  this 
is  true  of  a  small  per  cent.  It  is  by  no  means 
true  of  the  whole  class.  This  "abnormal"  the- 
ory smacks  too  much  of  the  nineteenth-century 
"depravity"  doctrine. 

Some  truants  are  quite  normal  and  so  re- 
sponsive to  new  influences  that  they  actually 
break  down  because  they  try  too  hard.  Their 
sincere  desire  to  do  well,  especially  under 
changed  circumstances,  is  pathetically  revealed 
in  the  following  letter  from  a  truant  in  the 
making : 

"Dear  Sir: 

"I  think  I  have  tried  to  do  my  best  since  you 
put  me  in  the  special  grade.  I  no  more  than  I 
use  to  no  and  I  think  it  is  a  very  nice  grade. 
But  I  forget  myself  sometimes  and  I  do  the 


104  STREET-LAND 

same  as  the  other  children  do  and  of  course  I 
get  in  trouble  the  same  as  the  other  children. 

Mr.  is  nice  but  sometimes  he  gets  cross 

with  us  but  he  can't  help  it  because  we  make 
him  do  it.  Course  we  must  try  to  be  helpful 
and  good  and  we  will  get  along  a  little  better. 
The  more  you  try  the  better  you  get  along  in 
your  lessons.  I  have  been  good  so  far  but  a 
few  times  and  then  I  was  bad  and  got  into 
trouble  by  not  paying  atention  to  what  the 
teacher  would  say  to  me.  Then  of  course  I 
coudn't  but  get  spoken  to.  I  wrote  this  letter 
thinking  it  would  be  worth  telling  you  about." 

E.K. 

The  truant  boy  is  steadily  gaming  in  reputa- 
tion. The  conviction  is  growing  that  he  is 
just  a  healthy  animal  refusing  to  be  broken 
into  a  workhorse,  unwilling  to  stay  harnessed 
and  be  driven  along  the  beaten  path  which  leads 
to  a  diploma.  He  will  not  exchange  the  joy  of 
living,  carefree  and  independent,  for  the  tasks 
of  school  imposed  upon  him  by  law  and  custom. 
He  resents  the  readymade  curriculum  and 
routine  which  grown-ups  have  devised  to  crowd 
and  ensnare  childhood. 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS 

The  truant  is  the  typical  play-boy  of  Street- 
Land.  Oftentimes  he  is  simply  trying  to  make 
up  for  lost  time.  Jewish  school  boys,  for  ex- 
ample, who  are  also  forced  to  go  to  Hebrew 
school  every  afternoon  from  four  to  seven, 
may  desert  school  and  home  alike.  Italian 
boys  often  do  the  same  after  long  confinement 
at  home  work.  Truancy,  in  this  sense,  is  but 
an  unofficial  vacation  and  would  seem  as  justi- 
fiable as  the  vacations  of  grown-ups. 

School  des_ertiorithen,  writ  large,  is  ahealthy 
revolt  on  the  part  ^qf  active  boys^against  inac- 
tiv^scHoolLlife.  "Our  present  school  methods 
and,  to  a  large  extent,  our  school  curriculum," 
Professor  Dewey  reminds  us,  "are  inherited 
from  the  period  when  learning  and  the  com- 
mand of  certain  symbols,  affording,  as  they 
did,  the  only  access  to  learning,  were  all-im- 
portant. Our  education  is  still  dominated  by 
this  mediaeval  conception  of  learning.  It  is 
something  which  appeals  for  the  most  part  sim- 
ply to  the  intellectual  aspect  of  our  natures, 
our  desire  to  learn,  to  accumulate  information 


106  STREET-LAND 

and  to  get  control  of  the  symbols  of  learning; 
not  to  our  impulses  to  make,  to  do,  to  create,  to 
produce,  whether  in  the  form  of  utility  or  of 
art." 

Can  we  expect  every  boy  to  like  this  sort  of 
education  well  enough  to  endure  it  for  eight  or 
nine  years  without  a  break?  Yet  unwilling- 
ness to  do  so  was  once  considered  criminal  and 
was  criminally  punished.  We  now  insist  on  re- 
forming the  rebellious  boy,  still  half-believing 
that  there  is  something  morally  wrong  with  him. 

At  an  important  conference  held  in  Chicago, 
a  fresh  attempt  was  made  to  get  at  the  causes 
and  remedies  of  truancy.  Various  research 
committees  had  been  investigating  special 
phases  of  the  problem  for  the  benefit  of  the 
conference.  Tom  Truant  had  been  studied 
from  cradle  to  adolescence.  Some  examined 
the  workings  of  his  mind.  Others  sounded  the 
secrets  of  his  heart.  Still  others  studied  his 
curve  of  fatigue.  At  the  same  time,  a  commit- 
tee of  mothers  investigated  his  environment — • 
his  home,  his  school  and  his  street, 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  107 

The  conference  which  was  to  pass  on  the 
findings  of  the  committees  was  attended  by 
judges,  probation  officers,  truant  officers,  social 
workers,  medical  examiners,  teachers  and  col- 
lege presidents  as  well  as  by  plain  fathers  and 
mothers.  Meetings  were  held  three  times 
daily  for  three  days  in  succession.  Having  lis- 
tened to  the  reports  and  carefully  deliberated 
upon  them,  this  distinguished  gathering  of 
sober  people  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
mothers'  report  came  nearer  the  truth  than  any 
of  the  others. 

This  committee  reported  that,  according  to 
their  findings,  Tom  Truant  was  neither  abnor- 
mal nor  bad  but,  on  the  contrary,  rather  better 
than  his  environment.  They  found  that  Tom 
first  absented  himself  from  school  because  he 
had  no  shoes  or  nothing  to  eat,  or  because 
there  was  sickness  in  the  family,  or  because 
he  had  to  take  care  of  the  baby  or  run  errands. 
Having  taken  this  first  step  toward  truancy, 
Tom  was  apt  to  go  from  bad  to  worse  until 
he  came  to  prefer  loafing  to  schooling  and 


io8  STREET-LAND 

sooner  or  later  hardened  into  an  incorrigible 
offender.  These  mothers  frankly  blamed  the 
city  more  than  Tom — its  homes,  its  schools,  its 
streets.  The  conference  agreed  with  them  and 
resolved  to  do  its  best  not  merely  to  reform 
Tom,  but  to  improve  his  environment  and  in- 
crease his  chances  for  being  good. 

The  newly-awakened  social  conscience 
toward  the  truant  is  best  exemplified  in  ad- 
vance legislation.  The  1913  truancy  law  of 
Massachusetts  absolutely  forbids  the  establish- 
ment of  a  truant  school  at,  or  even  near,  a  penal 
institution.  Yet  fifty  years  ago,  the  tru- 
ant school  was  virtually  the  juvenile  depart- 
ment of  a  prison.  Moreover,  the  very  names 

"truant  officer"  and  "truant  school"  are  now 

/ 

abolished  and  the  words  "attendance  officer" 
and  "training  school"  used  instead.  One  sees 
in  these  compulsory  education  laws  not  merely 
a  change  of  name  but  also  of  heart  and  purpose. 
Their  spirit  is  akin  to  that  of  the  recent  de- 
linquency laws  of  the  more  enlightened  States 
of  the  Union.  Former  juvenile  codes  have 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  109 

been  purged  of  the  criminal  taint  by  carefully 
defining  and  reinterpreting  delinquent  acts. 
Children  committing  criminal  offenses  are  no 
longer  deemed  criminal  but  rather  in  need  of 
aid,  encouragement  and  guidance.  The  abo- 
lition of  the  Boston  truant  school,  organized 
about  twenty,  years  ago,  marks  the  end  of  the 
idea  of  punishment  in  dealing  with  truants. 

Our  newest  truant  schools  are  training 
schools,  and  so  suggest  that  the  wrong  has 
been,  not  in  the  boys,  but  in  the  school  system. 
Why  do  the  ideal  truant  schools  interest  boys 
while  our  common  schools  apparently  fail  to 
do  so?  Primarily  because  they  pay  closer  at- 
tention to  the  interests  and  activities  of  the 
child  who  is  "different" ;  because  they  supply  an 
environment  which  is  wholesome  and  a  cur- 
riculum which  is  dynamic;  because,  in  short, 
they  have  organized  a  school  life  the  keynote 
of  which  is  doing  rather  than  listening. 

It  seems  a  pity  and  a  perversion  of  the  spirit 
of  reform  that  a  boy  must  be  committed  for 
truancy  before  he  can  enjoy  such  privileges  as 


i  io  STREET-LAND 

outdoor  and  machine-shop  work.  These  forms 
of  learning  by  doing  are  efficacious  antidotes  to 
the  wanderlust.  If  the  new  truant  schools  do 
no  more  than  demonstrate  what  our  public 
schools  should  be  in  order  to  hold  the  deserter, 
they  will  have  served  their  purpose. 

The  street,  also,  is  teaching  us  how  to  deal 
with  school-runaways.  If  the  call  of  the  street 
is  so  irresistible  during  the  spring  months  when 
truancy  is  at  its  height,  why  not  answer  the  call 
and  make  the  most  of  the  opportunity?  Is  it 
not  still  an  open  question  whether  you  can 
learn  more  during  the  precious  spring  months 
indoors  than  you  can  out-of-doors?  Are  we 
not  committing  our  school  life  to  the  folly  of 
our  workaday  life,  spending  it  as  we  do 
within  four  walls  designed  to  meet  the  great- 
est rigors  of  winter  weather?  Is  the  broad 
spring  to  enter  our  hearts  and  the  hearts  of  our 
little  ones  only  through  windows? 

The  Greeks,  free  from  doctrines  of  sin  and 
most  alive  to  the  joys  of  living,  avoided  hot- 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  in 

house  education  by  carrying  on  their  teaching 
in  grove  and  market-place. 

When  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  Univer- 
sity suggested  the  environs  of  Franklin  Park 
in  Boston  as  a  desirable  location  for  school- 
houses,  the  transportation  economists  laughed 
it  out  of  court  on  the  ground  of  expense.  Only 
lack  of  imagination  really  stands  in  the  way  of 
carrying  out  this  idea  which  is  both  the  oldest 
and  the  newest  in  education. 

New  York  City,  which  has  a  way  of  execut- 
ing an  advanced  idea  while  it  is  being  indefi- 
nitely debated  in  Boston,  has  just  established 
an  outdoor  school  in  a  small  park  called 
Manhattan  Square,  where  the  American  Mu- 
seum of  Natural  History  is  located.  Riverside 
and  Central  Parks  are  also  used.  The  opening 
of  this  school-in-park  marks  a  new  era  in  kin- 
dergarten teaching.  This  new  school  shows 
that  there  is  nothing  quixotic  about  open-air 
teaching.  No  attempt  is  made  to  have  the  chil- 
dren go  out  on  rainy  days.  When  the  weather 


H2  STREET-LAND 

is  bad,  they  remain  in  the  school  building.  At- 
tendance is  said  to  be  much  more  regular  than 
at  exclusively  indoor  schools. 

Another  merit  of  the  outdoor  school  is  that 
the  children  acquire  a  decidedly  free  swing  in 
their  work.  When  they  draw  in  chalk  on  the 
sidewalk,  they  naturally  make  everything  large 
and  not  small  and  cramped  as  they  necessarily 
do  on  the  blackboard  of  the  classroom. 

Incidentally,  the  teacher  in  charge  of  this 
outdoor  school  is  also  demonstrating  an  im- 
portant principle  which  is  especially  applicable 
to  supervision  of  street  life, — that  all  children 
who  now  play  promiscuously  in  streets  and 
parks  should  be  grouped  according  to  age  or 
size. 

It  is  quite  probable  that  our  fundamental 
lack  of  vision  will  for  a  long  time  stand  in  the 
way  of  reorganizing  our  educational  practice  to 
meet  the  demands  of  changing  seasons.  It  is 
therefore  comforting  to  note  that  educational 
betterment  is  at  least  beginning  to  catch  up 
with  other  forms  of  social  betterment. 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  113 

Those  who  work  for  the  general  improve- 
ment of  social  conditions  are  certainly  doing 
their  share  in  the  fight  against  school  desertion. 
In  fact,  district  nurses,  medical  inspectors, 
juvenile  street-work  supervisors  and  other 
child-saving  agents  are  really  doing  more  to 
overcome  school  indifference  than  most  truant 
officers.  The  latter  are  after  truant  children 
rather  than  the  truant  problem.  They  are  so 
busy  with  the  effects  of  truancy  that  they  have 
no  time  to  deal  with  the  causes.  The  new  type 
of  attendance  officer  cooperates  with  the  social 
worker  in  trying  to  abolish  truants,  truant  offi- 
cers and  truant  schools  alike. 

The  many  causes  of  school  desertion  call  for 
as  many  remedies — certainly  many  more  than 
early  authorities  looked  for  or  ever  dreamed  of 
employing.  These  remedies  are  the  result  of 
a  clearer  understanding  of  the  many  types  of 
children  classed  together  as  truants.  We 
have  fortunately  outlived  the  notion  that  there 
are  just  two  classes  of  children,  the  good  and 
bad ;  and  that  truants  are  necessarily  bad.  We 


114  STREET-LAND 

have  finally  discerned  the  truth  that  all  chil- 
dren are  different — some  of  them  especially 
bright  and  others  dull  and  backward;  some 
mentally  defective,  others  defective  in  hearing, 
sight,  or  breathing;  some  strong,  others 
anaemic  or  tubercular ;  some  precocious,  others 
subnormal;  some  veritable  bookworms,  others 
with  no  taste  for  book  knowledge  but  with  a 

ission  for  using  their  sense  gifts. 

A  finer  classification  of  children  in  the  ele- 
mentary schools  is  now  being  tried  out  every- 
where. Each  group  necessarily  calls  for  dif- 
ferent treatment.  Special  classes  are  being 
organized  to  meet  the  needs  of  individual  chil- 
dren. There  are  in  many  schools  small  classes 
for  abnormal  and  defective  children.  Trouble- 
makers are  put  into  classes  of  about  fifteen. 
The  size  of  regular  classes  has  been  reduced 
from  sixty  to  forty.  All  these  movements  are 
steps  in  the  right  direction  and  should  be  en- 
couraged everywhere. 

Much  and  varied  handwork  is  being  intro- 
duced into  some  schools  for  those  who  can  best 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  115 

profit  by  such  activities.  Home  and  school  vis- 
itors are  of  great  value  in  interpreting  and  re- 
constructing the  work  of  truant  officers.  The 
licensing  and  supervision  of  children  trading  in 
city  streets  has  proven  effective  against  a  com- 
mercial stimulus  to  school  desertion.  Medical 
inspection  for  all  children,  provision  for  excep- 
tionally weak  children  through  fresh-air  rooms 
and  camps,  departments  of  hygiene  and  play- 
grounds, parents'  and  teachers'  associations, — 
all  these  are  powerful  weapons  against  truancy, 
waywardness  and  delinquency.  These  social 
agencies  in  a  large  variety  of  forms  and  under 
different  names  are  springing  up  in  nearly 
every  American  city. 

Most  cities,  however,  are  still  woefully  in 
need  of  a  constructive  program  for  improving 
school  attendance,  which  is  generally  only 
eighty  per  cent,  of  the  enrollment.  First  of 
all,  our  compulsory  education  laws,  which,  in 
some  States,  have  remained  untouched  for 
decades,  should  be  revised  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Massachusetts  model  truancy  law.  Further- 


n6  STREET-LAND 

more,  compulsory  education  may  well  be  re- 
interpreted in  view  of  the  results  accomplished 
in  Gary,  Indiana,  where  the  school  children  are 
so  interested  in  their  work  that  they  must  be 
"compelled"  to  go  home. 

Every  city  should  take  a  school  census  an- 
nually. It  should  also  have  a  follow-up  sys- 
tem for  newly-arrived  immigrant  children. 
Moreover,  every  truant  force  should  be  organ- 
ized into  a  department  of  compulsory  educa- 
tion. Each  attendance  officer  should  be  made 
responsible  for  the  school  attendance  of  all 
children  in  a  given  district,  whether  they  attend 
public,  parochial  or  private  schools.  All 
courts  should  be  enlisted  in  the  uniform  en- 
forcement of  improved  compulsory  education 
laws.  Every  superintendent  of  schools  should 
have  authority  to  transfer  truants  without 
court  proceedings.  In  this  way,  many  boys 
would  be  saved  the  usual  disgrace  of  a  court 
record. 

Some  States  have  already  successfully  tried 
out  the  experiment  of  fining  parents  found  re- 


SCHOOL  DESERTERS  nf 

sponsible  for  truancy.  Such  parents  are  made 
to  contribute  to  the  care  of  truants.  This  sys- 
tem has  just  been  adopted  in  Massachusetts. 
It  should  be  the  rule  in  all  States. 

All  training  or  truant  schools  should  be  in- 
corporated into  the  public  school  system.  The 
boys  should  be  trained  during  the  term  of  com- 
mitment in  such  a  way  that  they  may  be  able  to 
earn  a  livelihood  upon  their  discharge.  The 
schools  should  also  aid  them,  as  some  now  do, 
to  find  the  kind  of  work  for  which  they  were 
trained.  A  person  often  needs  a  job  more 
than  anything  else  in  the  world.  The  poli- 
tician fully  appreciates  this  general  need. 
Why  should  not  the  educator?  The  school 
which  is  successful  in  aiding  its  graduates  to 
find  employment  will  be  longer  remembered  by 
them  for  this  simple  act  than  for  its  entire  cur- 
riculum. 


CHAPTER  Y 

VACATION   TIME 

Vacation  ideals  of  city  and  country  boys  —  Length 
of  school  vacations  —  The  vacation  call  —  Summer 
adventure  —  Girls'  vacation  activities  —  Immigrant 
children  in  Street-Land  —  Summer  hardships  —  In- 
crease in  juvenile  crime  —  Present-day  solutions  of  the 
summer  problem:  Church  picnics  —  Vacation  Bible 
Schools  —  Country  outings  —  Caddying  —  Farming  — 
The  Boy  Scout  Movement  and  city  boys  —  The  Camp 
Fire  Girls  and  the  girls  of  Street-Land  —  Vacation 
schools  —  City  gardening. 

A  CITY  boy  who  was  visiting  his  cousin  in  a 
country  school  was  asked  to  write  a  letter  tell- 
ing how  he  spent  the  day  before  in  the  city. 
He  wrote  as  follows : 

"Yesterday  was  April  fool  day  and  we 
played  jokes.  I  took  a  can  and  string  and  tied 
it  on  a  man's  back  and  had  some  fun.  We 
played  puss  in  the  corner  and  the  shot  games 

118 


VACATION  TIME  119 

and  all  other  games,  and  we  played  marbles 
around  the  streets." 

His  country  cousin  wrote  in  quite  a  different 
vein: 

"Yesterday  I  watched  summer  time  coming. 
A  robin  sat  on  my  window  and  sang  a  song  to 
me.  Jack  Frost  is  gone.  From  his  hiding 
place  a  trout  peeped  out.  And  the  willow  cat- 
kins were  hanging  on  the  trees.  All  of  the 
children  were  very  happy  walking  into  the 
Meadow  and  through  the  beautiful  tall  grass 
and  picking  the  lovely  daisies  and  pretty  little 
violets,  the  buds  on  the  trees  also.  The  flowers 
bust  open  and  all  the  pretty  birds  sang  their 
song  of  May.  We  went  out  into  the  garden  to 
water  the  beautiful  flowers.  When  darkness 
fell  into  the  room  we  prayed  so  soft  and  sweet." 

The  contrast  between  these  two  letters  is 
quite  obvious.  No  city  boy  could  very  well 
have  written  the  second  letter.  Yet  one  feels 
instinctively  that  its  suggestions  are  safer  and 
saner  for  a  holiday  program  than  those  of  the 
city  boy.  The  city  boy's  plans  for  mischief 
are  a  mild  suggestion  of  the  "rowdyism,  dissi- 


120  STREET-LAND 

pation  and  forced  fun"  which  city  children  re- 
sort to  in  vacation  time. 

One  must  realize  how  long  the  summer  va- 
cation is  and  how  many  are  the  shorter  vaca- 
tions in  order  to  appreciate  properly  the  street 
boys'  opportunities  for  mischief  and,  worse 
still,  for  laziness.  In  many  States,  the  long  va- 
cation lasts  four  or  five  months.  In  the  more 
educationally  advanced  States,  it  lasts  three 
months.  Short  vacations  are  numerous  and 
range  from  one  day  to  a  month.  The  average 
annual  term  of  school  is  but  one  hundred  and 
fifty-seven  days  out  of  three  hundred  and  sixty- 
five,  or,  in  terms  of  actual  hours  spent  in  the 
classroom,  one-tenth  of  the  entire  year.  In 
several  States,  it  is  little  more  than  one  hundred 
days  out  of  the  year. 

Yet  the  little  folk  of  Street-Land  eagerly 
look  forward  to  vacations.  On  rainy  morn- 
ings they  gather  early  at  the  fire  stations 
awaiting  the  sign  in  the  window — "No  School 
Today."  At  its  welcome  appearance,  all  burst 
into  loud  hurrahs  as  if  they  had  been  suddenly 


VACATION  TIME  121 

released  from  prison.  As  for  the  regular  va- 
cations, they  never  come  too  frequently.  This 
restlessness  on  the  part  of  city  children  is  due 
largely  to  school  inaction,  which  gets  on  their 
nerves. 

While  adults  seek  vacation  as  a  respite  from 
work,  children  await  the  school  recesses,  anx- 
ious to  do  things.  To  most  adults,  vacation 
stands  for  a  rest;  to  children,  it  means  recre- 
ation, action. 

City  children  always  anticipate  the  summer 
vacation.  Spring  fever  comes  with  the  first 
whiff  of  spring  and  keeps  the  truant  officers 
busy.  As  the  days  get  warmer,  mere  study  in 
stuffy  classrooms  becomes  impossible.  Boys 
especially,  stirred  by  the  call  of  spring,  yield 
to  the  wanderlust.  Those  who  resist  the  im- 
pulse are  a  greater  problem  to  the  teachers  than 
the  others  are  to  the  truant  officers. 

I  recall  an  ungraded  class  which  I  often  had 
occasion  to  visit.  The  boys  were  restless  and 
habitually  cross.  The  teacher  complained  that 
they  had  the  "blues"  from  Monday  to  Friday. 


122  STREET-LAND 

They  would  not  pay  attention  or  do  as  tHey 
were  told.  Instead,  they  ingeniously  devised 
ways  of  doing  the  things  which  they  yearned  to 
do  in  the  open.  They  played  spitball  in  place 
of  baseball ;  they  twirled  pencils  instead  of  tops. 
Naturally  the  teacher  was  glad  to  release  them 
at  the  close  of  the  term  for  better  or  for 
worse. 

Street-Lan'd  with  all  its  drawbacks  is  more 
interesting  than  school,  especially  in  summer. 
The  street  does  not  drive  the  child :  it  leads  him 
on — to  discovery,  conquest,  amusement,  self- 
expression.  These  are  indeed  some  of  the 
fruits  which  street  children  gather  in  vacation 
time.  Summer  adventure  offers  boundless  op- 
portunities,— from  tumbling  into  the  Frog 
Pond  to  actually  getting  arrested.  The  sum- 
mer vacation  is  the  period  for  surveying  neigh- 
borhoods; for  fathoming  the  Great  Beyond  ly- 
ing outside  the  gates  of  the  city.  For  children, 
too,  enjoy  planning  and  executing  "surveys." 

Italian  and  Portuguese  boys  like  to  go  off 
on  summer-long  fishing  trips.  They  drop  out 


VACATION  TIME  123 

of  school  early  and  suddenly.  By  the  middle 
of  May  they  have  turned  their  backs  on  the  city 
and  virtually  live  on  the  water.  Sometimes 
they  depart  for  the  Grand  Banks, — quite  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  truant  officer  and  envied 
by  the  children  on  shore. 

Children  love  to  wander  off  and  lose  them- 
selves in  the  street  jungle.  They  are  led  from 
point  to  point  by  curiosity  or  by  the  call  of  dis- 
tant playmates.  Here  and  there  they  halt  to 
have  a  game,  to  inspect  a  gun  in  a  window,  to 
snatch  a  peanut  from  a  stand,  to  view  a  fight 
or  to  give  royal  battle  when  the  opportunity 
presents  itself.  A  torn-up  street  will  tempt  a 
boy  of  five  to  move  farther  and  farther  on 
until  the  very  last  red  lantern  is  investigated. 
By  this  time  he  is  a  mile  from  home  and  com- 
pletely lost  in  the  city  wilderness. 

Lost  children  are  very  commonly  reported 
at  police  stations  on  pleasant  summer  evenings. 
It  was  my  privilege  every  now  and  then  to 
bring  a  wandering  child  home  at  midnight  and 
receive  the  thanks  of  a  grateful  mother.  On 


124  STREET-LAND 

the  other  hand,  it  was  very  pathetic  to  find  im- 
migrant mothers  late  at  night  visiting  the 
haunts  of  street  boys  in  search  of  Angelo  or 
"Davidel  mein  kind." 

Girls  spend  their  vacations  nearer  home  than 
boys.  They  are  more  useful  in  the  house  and 
cooperate  better  with  their  mothers.  The  boys 
are  therefore  literally  turned  out  of  the  homes 
into  the  streets  to  play;  and  the  girls  are  kept 
busy  inside  with  dish-washing,  sweeping,  dust- 
ing and  cleaning  windows.  During  meal 
times,  the  latter  frequently  run  errands  for 
mother.  At  the  same  time,  their  brothers  may 
be  running  errands  for  neighbors  at  the  price 
of  a  ticket  to  the  movies.  Many  girls  spend 
the  greater  part  of  the  summer  on  the  sidewalk 
"minding"  the  baby.  Very  often  a  girl  is 
obliged  to  do  all  the  washing  and  cleaning — 
even  the  preparing  of  the  meals — when  her 
mother  is  away  doing  housework  for  other  peo- 
pie. 

One  girl  describes  her  day's  program  as  fol- 
lows : 


VACATION  TIME  125 

"In  the  morning,  I  help  my  mother  to  clean 
the  house.  In  the  afternoon  I  take  my  sister's 
baby  out  till  five  o'clock.  Then  I  do  my  er- 
rands for  supper.  After  supper  I  go  to  choir 
rehearsal." 

Another  girl  says : 

"Every  Saturday  I  go  up  town  to  do  my 
shopping.  When  I  get  home  I  dress  my  baby 
and  go  for  a  walk  with  him  until  six  o'clock. 
Then  I  go  with  my  mother  up  the  avenue  to  buy 
everything  for  Sunday  what  she  needs." 

Street-Land  in  summer  time  is  full  of  immi- 
grant children  who  have  just  arrived  in  large 
numbers.  They  are  keener  to  know  their  en- 
vironment than  are  the  grown-ups.  They  plan 
trips  of  exploration  to  the  parks,  the  Museum 
of  Fine  Arts  and  the  Public  Library,  and  ex- 
ecute them  in  the  spirit  of  true  pioneers.  The 
American  show-windows  lure  them  from  all 
directions.  The  five-and-ten-cent  stores  are 
their  mecca.  Consequently,  before  summer  is 
over,  they  know  more  about  America  than  their 
parents  will  know  in  ten  years. 


126  STREET-LAND 

These  possibilities  for  actual  contact  with  the 
larger  city  life  about  them,  if  organized,  would 
go  further  than  the  school  curriculum  toward 
Americanizing  immigrant  children.  Sightsee- 
ing trips,  for  example,  ought  to  be  made  a  part 
of  a  general  scheme  of  summer  recreation  un- 
der supervision.  Every  city  should  have  a 
recreation  director  who  should  begin  by  chart- 
ing all  summer  possibilities  and  then  proceed  to 
organize  the  children  into  groups  best  calcu- 
lated to  take  advantage  of  them.  Otherwise, 
immigrant  children  are  apt  sooner  or  later  to 
lose  their  desire  to  know  their  city  and  retro- 
grade into  aimless  street  wanderers  without 
any  vacation  plan  or  purpose. 

One  of  the  boys  in  an  ungraded  class,  in 
response  to  an  inquiry  as  to  how  he  proposed 
to  spend  his  summer,  handed  in  the  following 
letter: 

"My  dear  Fremd 

"You  ask  me  how  I  am  going  to  spend  my 
vacation.  I  am  going  to  play  boul  in  the  park 
and  then  I  am  going  to  the  country  to  pick  flow- 


VACATION  TIME  127 

ers.  I  cant  tell  you  what  I  am  going  to  do  till 
the  day  comes.  Then  I  will  do  what  I  think  is 
right. 

"Hoping  that  this  little  will  rest  you  all  rignt. 
"I  am  yours  troule, 

"BORIS  B." 

In  spite  of  the  tempting  opportunities,  a 
summer  in  Street-Land  is  full  of  hardship. 
By  the  middle  of  June,  record  temperatures  are 
common.  Sunstrokes  occur  daily.  Older  peo- 
ple are  most  affected,  but  children  also  suffer. 
Little  folks  become  enervated.  Brick  tene- 
ments and  stone  pavements  accentuate  the  heat ; 
they  bottle  it  up,  so  to  speak.  The  home  is  no 
more  comfortable  than  the  street.  The  kitchen 
stove  is  generally  going.  Children  do  not  care 
to  stay  inside  nor  are  they  allowed  to  tarry 
much  in  the  house.  Hauling  coal  and  wood, 
the  most  common  city  chore,  is  temporarily 
suspended;  and  running  errands  for  mother  is 
not  very  popular.  Summer  in  Street-Land  is 
often  nerve-racking.  Many  children  "go  to 
pieces."  According  to  the  testimony  of  phy- 


128  STREET-LAND 

sicians,  their  general  health  suffers.  Life  is 
irregular  and  disorganized.  Meals  are  no 
longer  regulated  by  the  school  bell.  There  is 
nothing  to  do  but  play  and  no  place  for  play  but 
the  street. 

The  most  serious  phase  of  summer  life  is  the 
increase  in  juvenile  crime.  There  are  juvenile 
crimes  in  season  as  there  are  fruits  in  season. 
Stealing  fruit  from  pushcarts  is  one  of  them 
and  is  both  old  and  common.  Stealing  ice,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  new  and  uncommon. 

Freight-car  refrigerators  offer  the  best  op- 
portunity for  free  ice.  Here  is  a  line  of  cars 
stretching  the  length  of  the  avenue.  Some  of 
them  are  full  of  ice,  always  at  a  premium  in 
summer.  How  is  this  ice  to  reach  the  tene- 
ment home?  The  credit  of  solving  this  prob- 
lem belongs  to  street  boys.  This  is  their 
scheme.  A  signal  boy  stands  at  each  end  of 
the  train  on  the  lookout  for  officers  and  brake- 
men.  Two  other  boys  with  rope  and  tackle 
scale  the  car.  One  goes  down  into  the  tank 
and  ties  the  rope  around  a  piece  of  ice.  The 


VACATION  TIME  129 

other  hoists  it  up  and  then  lowers  it  into  a  cart. 
As  soon  as  the  cart  is  full  the  boy  who  mans  it 
disappears  in  an  alley.  Presently  another  cart 
appears.  Thus  the  work  goes  on  until  the 
brakeman  is  spied  coming  from  Jerry's  Bar. 
In  an  instant  the  ice  business  comes  to  a  stand- 
still and  the  boys  vanish. 

Bunking  out  is  another  favorite  pastime 
during  the  summer.  The  weather  greatly  en- 
courages such  an  adventure.  The  stuffy  tene- 
ments drive  boys  to  sleep  out.  This  habit  be- 
gins simply  enough,  but  leads  to  serious  juve- 
nile crimes. 

Many  people  realize  the  dangers  of  vacation 
time  in  Street-Land.  Every  summer,  there- 
fore, witnesses  some  new  child-saving  experi- 
ments. Tim  Sullivan's  outing  for  New  York 
children  is  a  classic  of  one  type  of  endeavor. 
It  is  the  politician's  solution  of  the  summer 
problem. 

Church  picnics  for  children  of  the  congested 
districts  are  very  common  and  reach  many 
thousands  every  summer.  Most  of  these  pic- 


130  STREET-LAND 

nics  are  exceedingly  helpful.  Churches  which 
raise  money  for  summer  outings  under  the  su- 
pervision of  children's  societies  accomplish  the 
greater  good  which  is  made  possible  by  the  ex- 
perience, organization  and  supervision  of  ex- 
pert agencies. 

The  Daily  Vacation  Bible  School  is  an  ex- 
periment which  the  churches  in  many  large 
cities  have  been  trying  out  with  some  success. 
It  stands  for  the  extended  use  of  the  church 
plants  so  often  closed  in  summer.  It  invites 
the  services  of  students  otherwise  disengaged 
during  the  vacation.  Though  the  emphasis  is 
mainly  on  the  Bible,  the  children  also  get  val- 
uable training  in  singing,  games,  little  pageants 
and  handicraft. 

Philanthropic  agencies  are  even  more  active. 
Generous  sums  of  money  are  spent  every  sum- 
mer to  bring  the  starved  souls  of  street  folk  in 
contact  with  nature.  In  nearly  every  city,  op- 
portunity is  given  to  thousands  of  children  for 
day  excursions,  week-end  trips  and  vacations, 
varying  in  length  from  one  day  to  fourteen. 


VACATION  TIME  131 

Camps,  beaches  and  play  spaces  are  maintained 
at  great  cost  in  order  to  provide  recreation. 

All  this  is  helpful  but  totally  inadequate. 
The  public  is  apt  to  misconceive  the  situation 
in  believing  that  the  summer  work  attempted 
here  and  there  benefits  all  the  children  in  need 
of  such  help.  Like  open-air  classes  for  anaemic 
children,  or  school  lunches  for  under-nourished 
children,  summer  work  at  best  hardly  reaches 
five  per  cent,  of  those  in  need.  Summer  work 
is  handicapped  further  by  its  temporary  nature. 
Moreover,  it  often  fails  to  help  those  for  whom 
it  is  especially  intended. 

For  example,  Scouting  is  a  luxury  to  the 
schoolboy  who  must  earn  a  livelihood  during 
the  summer.  To  meet  the  requirements  of  this 
class  of  boys,  one  of  the  pioneer  social  settle- 
ments, the  South  End  House  of  Boston,  has  in- 
stituted a  system  of  caddying  which  meets  most 
demands  of  an  ideal  summer  vacation  and  of- 
fers, besides,  a  chance  to  earn  and  save  a  sub- 
stantial sum.  Caddying  on  the  golf  links  in 
New  Hampshire  is  therefore  very  popular 


132  STREET-LAND 

now  among  Boston  boys.  This  opportunity  is 
the  rich  reward  of  the  boy  in  the  settlement 
who  has  proven  most  faithful,  and  otherwise 
deserving,  in  the  season's  work. 

A  similar  experiment,  first  tried  on  a  large 
scale  by  Bert  Hall  of  Milwaukee,  is  finding 
city  children  light  summer  work  on  farms. 
Every  boy  is  expected  to  earn  his  board.  A 
children's  society  pays  the  fare.  Many  farm- 
ers have  expressed  a  willingness  to  aid  in 
furthering  this  movement. 

Farming  out  has  its  serious  drawbacks.  It 
is  too  closely  akin  to  child  labor.  Without  a 
great  deal  of  supervision,  this  placing-out  sys- 
tem is  subject  to  abuse.  The  ideal  plan  is  for  a 
whole  family  to  go  to  the  country  for  the  sum- 
mer. This  plan,  unfortunately,  is  still  the  rare 
privilege  of  the  few  whose  children,  if  they 
have  any,  are  least  in  need  of  such  a  vacation. 

Scouting,  so  vigorously  introduced  into  boy 
life  all  over  the  country,  is  of  especial  value  to 
schoolboys  during  the  vacation  period.  There 
are  three  hundred  thousand  Scouts  in  this 


VACATION  TIME  133 

country,  organized  into  patrols  under  Scout 
Masters. 

Scouting  is  distinctively  educational  because 
it  draws  out  the  dormant  instincts  in  the  city 
boy,  which  have  become  abortive  for  want  of 
opportunity  to  exercise  them.  Building  fires, 
climbing  trees,  chopping  wood,  tying  knots, 
following  the  trail,  truly  educate.  They  edu- 
cated the  race,  and  should  be  part  of  every 
city  boy's  life.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  re- 
quired uniforms  and  outfits  tend  to  bar  out 
poor  boys.  Furthermore,  many  possibilities  in 
the  Scout  Movement  for  typical  street  boys  are 
still  awaiting  development.  But  suggestive 
examples  are  numerous. 

In  the  village  of  Merrimac,  Massachusetts, 
which  maintains  no  street  department,  the 
Scouts  pick  up  the  paper  and  other  litter 
from  the  main  streets.  Each  street  has  its 
committee  and  reports  are  called  for  at  every 
meeting. 

During  a  fire  in  a  suburb  of  Troy,  New  York, 
the  first  to  reach  the  scene  were  the  Boy  Scouts. 


134  STREET-LAND 

"They  formed  a  bucket  brigade  and  kept  the 
fire  under  control  until  the  firemen  arrived. 
The  firemen  said  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the 
Souts  the  damage  would  have  been  far  greater, 
and  they  might  not  have  been  able  to  save  the 
buildings." 

Some  cities,  like  New  York,  recognizing  the 
possibilities  for  disinterested  service  from 
street  boys  under  organization  and  control,  are 
offering  municipal  lectures  for  Scouts  describ- 
ing the  workings  of  the  street,  fire,  police  and 
health  departments. 

The  boys  of  Troop  Forty  in  Brooklyn,  New 
York,  who  had  no  opportunity  to  get  out  into 
the  country  during  the  summer,  established  a 
camp  on  a  vacant  lot.  "Many  Scouts,  by  sleep- 
ing there  fifty  nights,  fulfilled  one  of  the  re- 
quirements for  the  Camping-Merit  badge." 

Monster  pow-wows  are  held  on  vacant  lots 
everywhere  during  the  summer  season.  Sing- 
ing, telling  stories  and  performing  stunts  are 
but  a  part  of  the  rich  entertainment  programs 
for  summer  evenings. 


VACATION  TIME  135 

These  instances,  taken  freely  from  Boys' 
Life,  the  Boy  Scouts'  magazine,  show  many 
opportunities  for  making  dreary  street  life  in- 
teresting, vital,  even  fascinating,  to  the  poorest 
city  boys.  Its  special  value  to  street  boys  dur- 
ing those  days  when  time  just  drags  and  moral 
life  ebbs  may  be  illustrated  by  Sammy's  predic- 
ament. 

For  years,  Sammy  sold  papers  on  his  own 
corner  in  front  of  a  saloon.  His  father,  having 
acquired  property,  told  him  that  it  was  not 
"nice"  for  the  son  of  a  "real-estatenick"  to  sell 
papers.  Accordingly,  Sammy  walked  proudly 
into  the  office  of  the  School  Committee  and 
turned  in  his  badge.  But  the  corner  habit  was 
so  firmly  implanted  that  he  could  not  re- 
sist it. 

One  day,  I  found  him  begging,  apparently 
for  lack  of  something  else  to  do.  When  the 
matter  was  presented  to  him  in  conference  at 
the  office,  in  the  presence  of  his  parents  and 
teacher,  Sammy,  whose  record  of  attendance, 
scholarship  and  conduct  was  always  up  to  the 


136  STREET-LAND 

standard,  at  last  realized  what  the  corner  habit 
might  lead  to. 

"What  can  I  do  to  redeem  myself?"  he 
asked. 

At  the  suggestion  that  he  join  the  Boy 
Scouts,  since  he  could  well  afford  a  uniform, 
Sammy  caught  the  vision  of  a  new  world. 
Scouting  saved  him. 

The  Camp  Fire  Girls  are  a  sister  institution 
to  the  Boy  Scouts,  but  on  a  smaller  scale. 
They  have  not  yet  reached  the  typical  street 
girls.  Yet  the  possibilities  of  this  movement 
are  as  great  as  those  of  the  Boy  Scouts. 

Girls'  interests  center  round  miniature 
homes,  doll  families  and  little  gardens, — the 
abiding  interests  of  childhood  which  need 
especially  to  be  kept  alive  in  city  girls.  Camp 
Fire  Girls  could  encourage  the  favorite  games 
of  old,  such  as  London  Bridge  and  Going  to 
Jerusalem.  They  could  also  encourage  folk 
dancing  where  the  environment  is  favorable. 
The  Virginia  Reel  and  "Pop  Goes  the  Weasel" 
would  do  more  to  bring  together  the  little 


VACATION  TIME  137 

Polish,  Italian  and  Jewish  girls  of  the  blind  al- 
leys than  the  patriotic  speeches  of  the  school- 
room. 

Who  else  shall  teach  these  little  girls  How  to 
sing  and  dance  together  in  Street-Land?  How 
is  the  fair-haired  Annushka,  but  yesterday 
from  Poland,  ever  to  learn  all  about  "Mary  had 
a  Little  Lamb"?  If  the  Camp  Fire  Girls 
mixed  freely  with  the  little  girls  of  Street- 
Land,  the  product  would  certainly  be  a  finer 
type  of  American  womanhood. 

So  much  for  private  (efforts  to  cope  with  the 
summer  problem. 

So  far  as  municipal  enterprise  is  concerned, 
the  vacation  schools,  next  to  the  playgrounds, 
are  most  important  and  promising.  Like  play- 
grounds, vacation  schools  were  originally 
planned  primarily  to  keep  children  off  the 
streets  during  the  trying  summer  months. 
The  first  vacation  schools  were  the  result  of 
private  initiative,  but  they  were  fast  taken  over 
by  municipalities  and  incorporated  into  the 
school  systems. 


138  STREET-LAND 

The  earliest  school  on  record  was  started  in 
1866  in  the  old  First  Church  of  Boston.  In 
1894,  the  New  York  Society  for  Improving  the 
Condition  of  the  Poor  opened  its  first  vacation 
schools.  After  four  years  of  demonstration, 
the  city  undertook  the  control  and  management 
of  the  ten  schools  then  under  the  care  of  the 
Society.  The  first  private  vacation  school  of 
Chicago  was  organized  in  1896.  The  schools 
of  Philadelphia  and  Indianapolis  opened  their 
doors  in  1898.  From  that  time  on,  summer 
vacation  schools  spread  rapidly.  In  1903, 
nearly  every  city  in  the  United  States  of  one 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants  or  more  main- 
tained vacation  schools.  Today  most  of  the 
schools  are  conducted  by  the  cities  themselves. 

There  are  two  types  of  vacation  school,  the 
original  indoor-and-outdoor  playground  type 
and  the  academic  type.  Both  meet  genuine 
city  needs.  The  latter  is  very  recent  but  is  de- 
veloping fast.  It  is  intended  for  retarded  or 
backward  pupils  who  desire  to  make  up  their 
deficiencies,  as  well  as  for  strong  and  ambitious 


VACATION  TIME  139 

pupils  anxious  to  gain  advanced  standing. 
Thousands  of  children,  not  promoted,  attend 
these  continuation  classes  and  thereby  succeed 
in  entering  their  respective  grades  in  the  fall. 
This  saves  them  a  year.  Many  children  are 
promoted  in  June  on  condition  that  they  attend 
a  vacation  school  and  cover  "skipped"  work. 
This  sort  of  schooling  is  a  splendid  substitute 
for  summer  loafing. 

The  out-and-out  playground  type  is  very 
popular  because  its  organized  activities  are 
those  city  children  crave  all  through  the 
long  school  year.  That  the  academic  type  also 
appeals  to  certain  classes  of  city  children  may 
be  judged  from  the  following  letter : 

"Dear  Mr.  Teacher: 

"I  go  to  write  you  a  letter  what  I  am  going 
to  do  necst  week  wen  my  teacher  give  us  vaca- 
tion. The  first  day  Monday  I  have  to  liarn  all 
my  lessons  from  school.  Tuesday  morning  I 
sell  papers.  Wen  I  cam  from  my  papers  I  have 
to  write  a  story  from  my  book,  the  name  of  the 
story  is  Hiawatha's  sailing,  and  in  the  night  I 
have  to  go  in  Sivek's  (Civic  Service)  House, 


140  STREET-LAND 

because  I  go  in  Sivek's  House  evrey  night  and 
I  riad  books.  And  Wednesday  and  Tuersday 
and  Friday  this  same  with  all  days  to  write  and 
riad  and  to  work.  I  hope  I  well  have  a  goot 
time,  for  all.  And  I  hope  you  shell  have  a 
good  time  too. 

"I  findesh  my  letter. 

"from  your  people, 

"SAMUEL  D." 

An  interesting  result  of  the  summer  vacation 
school  is  the  all-year  school  of  Newark,  New 
Jersey,  similar  to  the  all-year  University  of 
Chicago.  The  all-year  school,  provided  its 
curriculum  is  sane  and  its  outdoor  and  indoor 
activities  meet  the  demands  of  true  organic  ed- 
ucation, is,  after  all,  the  best  solution  of  the 
summer  problem.  It  meets  the  common  objec- 
tion of  parents  and  educators  that  the  school 
term  is  much  too  short  and  the  school  holidays 
too  numerous. 

The  vacation  school,  though  popular  with 
certain  types  of  children,  by  no  means  reaches 
all  children  let  loose  on  the  streets  in  summer. 
Only  yesterday,  even  school  yards  and  play- 


VACATION  TIME  141 

grounds  were  closed  during  the  warm  months. 
Nowhere  has  the  attempt  been  made  to  utilize 
in  comprehensive  fashion  the  vast  public  reser- 
vations of  which  many  municipalities  and  com- 
monwealths are  justly  proud.  Public  play- 
grounds are  multiplying  rapidly  and  are  espe- 
cially active  during  the  summer  time.  But 
municipal  outings  to  the  woods  and  water  ex- 
cursions, even  where  such  opportunities  are  nu- 
merous, are  rare.  Summer  recreation  for  city 
children  is  still  less  favored  than  summer  edu- 
cation. 

In  Boston,  the  cultivation  of  vacant  lots  is 
carried  on  under  the  auspices  of  the  Boston 
Social  Union,  a  federation  of  twenty-two  set- 
tlements and  other  neighborhood  centers.  In- 
structors are  maintained  to  teach  the  little  gar- 
deners who  pay  for  their  own  seeds  and  rent  the 
land  and  tools  for  twenty-five  cents  a  season. 
When  registering,  children  agree  to  stand  by 
certain  necessary  rules  with  respect  to  the 
neglect  of  plots,  the  care  of  tools,  the  gathering 
of  crops,  disobedience  and  stealing.  . 


142  STREET-LAND 

"**V^ 

This  work  is  directly  related  to  the  schools  of 
the  vicinity.  The  children  learn  the  connection 
between  gardening  and  Nature  Study  as  well  as 
home  plant-growing.  The  Superintendent  of 
Schools,  appreciating  their  educational  value, 
recommended  that  these  gardens  be  made  an 
integral  part  of  the  school  system.  This  many- 
sided  experiment  in  city  life  should  be  tried  in 
every  city  which  is  shamed  by  its  dumps  and 
troubled  by  its  street  problem. 

Many  suggestions  made  elsewhere  acquire 
special  value  and  urgency  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  summer  vacation.  The  increased  haz- 
ard of  street  life  during  the  long  summer  vaca- 
tion makes  all  the  more  urgent  the  curfew, 
street  supervision  and  the  more  basic  reforms 
suggested  in  the  last  chapter  of  this  book. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CHILD   WORKERS   IN   THE   STREETS 

Standards  of  street  work  abroad  —  Latest  U.  S. 
Census  returns  —  Street-working  children  vs.  factory 
children:  Age  and  time  limits  —  Earnings  and  en- 
vironments compared  —  Exploitation  of  newsboys  — 
Does  newspaper  selling  pay? —  Types  of  juvenile  ped- 
dlers—  Gutter  bootblacks  —  Night  messenger  boys  — 
The  messenger  boy  and  the  bicycle  — Subtler  phases  of 
child  labor  —  Dangers  of  the  street  as  a  workshop: 
physical,  moral,  educational  —  The  road  to  vagrancy. 

THE  street  is,  to  a  large  extent,  not  only  both 
home  and  school  for  city  children,  but  it  is  also 
their  workshop.  There  are  numerous  kinds  of 
work  which  children  do  in  city  streets. 

In  America  such  occupations  have  never  re- 
ceived the  attention  they  have  had  in  Great 
Britain,  Germany,  Austria  and  France  during 
the  past  two  decades.  These  countries  first 
instituted  nation-wide  inquiries  which  sug- 

143 


144  STREET-LAND 

gested  national  laws.  The  enactment  of  these 
laws  in  large  measure  did  away  with  the  more 
flagrant  evils  connected  with  juvenile  street 
work.  The  industrial  code  of  Germany  shows 
the  greatest  advance.  It  forbids  children  un- 
der fourteen  to  offer  goods  for  sale  on  public 
roads,  streets  or  places,  or  to  peddle  them  from 
house  to  house.  It  also  forbids  children  under 
twelve  to  deliver  goods  or  perform  other  er- 
rands except  for  their  parents. 

While  these  European  countries  were  work- 
ing out  national  standards  of  both  factory  and 
street  work,  our  federal  government  made 
some  half-hearted  attempts,  through  the  Cen- 
sus, to  ascertain  the  number  of  children  em- 
ployed directly  or  indirectly  in  factories,  mines 
and  streets.  The  Census  of  1900,  under  such 
remote  and  vague  headings  as  "other  persons 
in  trade  and  transportation"  and  "other  domes- 
tic and  personal  service/5  feebly  suggested  that 
there  might  be  several  thousand  newsboys  and 
bootblacks  in  the  country.  Any  newsboy  could 
have  told  the  enumerators  that  there  were  prob- 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     145 

ably  as  many  as  that  in  New  York  City  alone. 

A  more  sincere  effort  was  made  by  the  Cen- 
sus of  1910.  The  enumerators  were  told  to  re- 
port all  children  working  for  money  or  other 
gain.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  cen- 
sus-taking, canvassers  were  instructed  to  spec- 
ify not  only  the  kind  of  work  done,  but  also  the 
industry  and  place  (whether  factory,  farm, 
mine  or  street). 

The  Census  reveals  the  fact  that  in  April, 
1910,  there  were  nearly  two  million  children  of 
from  ten  to  sixteen  years  of  age  at  work. 
There  were  sixty-seven  thousand  newsboys, 
bootblacks,  peddlers  and  messengers  (including 
office  and  bundle  boys)  of  this  age,  and  almost 
fifty-three  thousand  more  from  sixteen  to 
twenty.  There  were  in  all  then  about  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty  thousand  boys  and  girls  work- 
ing in  city  streets. 

There  are  obvious  reasons  why  these  figures, 
in  spite  of  the  instructions  to  the  enumerators, 
are  far  below  the  true  numbers.  In  the  first 
place,  no  account  is  given  of  children  doing 


146  STREET-LAND 

chores  for  their  parents  and  others  without 
compensation.  All  children  from  five  to  ten 
who  not  only  commonly  help  their  brothers,  but 
are  themselves  regularly  engaged  in  "gainful 
occupations,"  are  as  yet  unaccounted  for,  al- 
though the  Census  has  no  other  value  except  as 
a  statement  of  conditions  existing  at  the  time  it 
was  taken;  namely,  April,  1910. 

The  last,  and  most  important,  source  of  er- 
ror lies  in  the  fact  that  the  enumerators  got 
their  information  as  to  the  occupations  of  chil- 
dren from  the  parents  at  home.  Street  work- 
ers themselves  are  too  much  on  the  run  to  be 
caught  in  any  enumeration.  As  everyone 
knows,  parents,  fearing  trouble,  are  only  too 
prone  to  deny  that  their  children  are  working. 

The  inadequacy  of  these  Census  returns  may 
further  be  shown  by  an  examination  of  the 
records  of  any  city  which  licenses  street  work- 
ers. In  Boston,  for  example,  there  were,  by 
actual  count,  twenty-two  hundred  newsboys  at 
the  very  time  when  the  Census  enumerators  dis- 
covered but  four  hundred  and  twenty-seven. 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     147 

Chicago,  with  a  population  three  times  as  great 
as  Boston,  is  credited  by  the  Census  with  three 
hundred  newsboys  under  sixteen.  It  is  there- 
fore conceivable  that  a  more  honest  count  of 
street  workers  all  over  the  country  would  dis- 
close three  hundred  thousand  rather  than  one 
hundred  and  twenty  thousand. 

No  one  has  yet  adequately  explained  why 
this  vast  army  of  juvenile  street  workers  has 
received  so  little  attention  as  compared  with 
child  laborers  in  factories.  An  analysis  of  the 
two  types  of  child  labor  will  show  that  street- 
working  children  are  in  many  respects  worse 
off  than  factory  children. 

In  most  States,  the  age  limit  for  factory  work 
is  fourteen  years.  In  only  seventeen  States  is 
any  attempt  made  by  legislation  to  recognize 
the  existence  of  street  traders.  In  these  States, 
the  age  limit  is  generally  ten  years.  Missouri 
forbids  a  boy  under  fourteen  to  work  in  a  fac- 
tory, but  allows  a  youngster  of  ten  to  sell 
papers  and  other  wares  on  the  streets.  Even 
the  State  of  Colorado,  which  has  done  so  much 


148  STREET-LAND 

for  juvenile  delinquents,  allows  a  girl  of  ten 
to  engage  in  street  trade  but  forbids  her 
thirteen-year-old  sister  to  work  in  a  shop. 

In  most  of  the  States  which  regulate  street 
trades,  the  age  limit  is  somewhat  higher  for 
girls  than  for  boys.  Is  this  difference  due  to 
a  recognition  of  the  moral  dangers  of  the 
street?  If  so,  have  we  really  made  up  our 
minds  that  we  can  afford  to  expose  boys  to 
greater  moral  strain?  In  the  most  advanced 
States,  the  age  limit  for  boy  street  workers  is 
usually  twelve  years,  while  for  girls  it  is 
eighteen.  The  Commission  on  Uniform  Child 
Labor  Law  advocates  twenty-one  years  as  the 
age  limit  for  girls  who  are  obliged  to  stand  con- 
stantly at  their  work.  A  similar  body  recom- 
mended the  same  age  limit  in  Great  Britain. 

Practically  half  the  States  prohibit  children 
from  working  more  than  eight  hours  a  day  in 
factories.  In  street  work,  the  laws  designate 
no  minimum  daily  hours  of  labor.  Frequently, 
however,  they  do  establish  morning  and  even- 
ing time  limits,  usually  six  A.  M.  and  ten  P.  M. 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     149 

This  means  that  street  workers,  even  in 
the  best-regulated  States,  may  work  from  six 
in  the  morning  till  eight  or  ten  at  night,  as  the 
case  may  be,  except  during  school  hours.  Ob- 
viously juvenile  street  workers  are  very  far 
from  an  eight-hour  day. 

A  comparison  of  the  earnings  of  the  two 
classes'  of  working  children  shows  that  factory 
children  are  again  better  off  in  the  long  run. 
The  congressional  report  on  the  Condition  of 
Women  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United 
States  shows  that  children  in  factories,  rang- 
ing in  age  from  ten  to  sixteen,  earn  approxi- 
mately nine  to  ten  cents  an  hour.  The  Parlia- 
mentary report  on  children  trading  in  streets 
shows  that  the  average  earnings  of  the  forty- 
five  thousand  street  vendors  investigated 
throughout  England  and  Wales  are  a  shilling  a 
day. 

No  such  reliable  national  investigation  has 
ever  been  made  in  this  country.  But  private 
investigations  made  in  New  York,  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  Boston,  Cleveland,  Buffalo  and 


ISO  STREET-LAND 

Detroit  confirm  the  returns  from  England. 
Many  boys  earn  less  than  twenty  cents  a  day. 
A  few  make  more  than  fifty  cents.  But  most 
street  workers  earn  but  twenty-five  cents  a  day. 
Assuming  that  five  hours  is  a  fair  average 
length  of  a  street-vendor's  working  day,  he 
earns  but  five  cents  an  hour. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  conditions  und,er 
which  children  work.  Here,  too,  the  contrast 
between  factory  and  street  is  marked.  Owing 
to  constant  legal  pressure,  factory  conditions 
are  improving  steadily  every  year.  Social 
standards  of  sanitation  and  safety  are  grad- 
ually evolving  out  of  the  chaos  of  our  present 
competitive  system  of  industry.  These  stand- 
ards are  being  embodied  in  our  factory  legis- 
lation as  fast  as  they  are  developed. 

No  community,  however,  has  as  yet  enacted 
into  law  social  standards  for  street  conditions. 
The  socialization  of  the  street,  unlike  the  so- 
cialization of  the  factory,  has  hardly  begun. 
Therefore  our  home,  school  and  church  stand- 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     151 

ards  of  conduct  are  constantly  threatened  on 
the  streets. 

Street  boys  find  business  best  in  districts 
where  saloons  and  pool  rooms  abound,  where 
men  drink  and  women  earn  and  spend  money 
fast.  Here  selling  papers,  blacking  boots  and 
peddling  flowers  go  hand  in  hand  with  begging, 
smoking,  gambling  and  picking  pockets.  Yet 
the  community  makes  little  effort  to  improve 
the  conditions,  although  it  does  what  it  can  to 
remove  the  boys, — a  splendid  illustration  of 
the  fable  about  fencing  around  the  cliff  above 
or  keeping  the  ambulance  busy  below ! 

Conditions  in  some  newspaper  mailing 
rooms  are  far  worse  than  those  usually  found 
in  factories.  Hundreds  of  boys  are  herded  to- 
gether in  badly-ventilated  rooms  for  hours  at 
a  time.  The  treatment  of  these  boys  during 
the  time  when  the  copies,  hot  from  the  press, 
are  being  distributed,  needs  to  be  humanized. 
The  boys  fight  for  copies  as  though  it  were  a 
matter  of  life  and  death.  I  have  seen  them 


152  STREET-LAND 

climb  over  one  another's  backs  in  their  efforts 
to  get  nearest  the  distributing  counter,  the 
boys  underneath  bearing  the  load  rather  than 
yielding  place.  The  attendant  in  charge  often 
uses  a  stick  most  freely.  Such  handling  not 
merely  toughens  boys,  as  is  commonly  claimed, 
but  is  a  form  of  brutality  which  may  mani- 
fest itself  in  adult  life  in  many  ugly  forms. 

In  contrast  to  factory  workers,  street  ven- 
dors are  exposed  to  all  extremes  of  weather. 
Summer  or  winter,  rain  or  snow,  they  are  the 
inevitable  victims  of  all  changes.  Too  often, 
they  are  caught  unprotected.  But  they  always 
hold  their  ground  in  dogged  defiance  of  the 
storm. 

Juvenile  street  trades  comprise;  the  city 
chores  which  children  daily  perform  for  a  liv- 
ing. These  trades  often  merge  into  one  an- 
other. Like  the  country  boy  who  has  to  do  all 
kinds  of  chores,  a  street  worker  frequently  sells 
papers,  blacks  boots  and  runs  errands  on  the 
same  day. 

Newsboys,  the  largest  group  of  street  work- 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     153 

ers  in  every  city,  are  generally  divided  into 
sellers  and  carriers.  There  are  also  the  whole- 
salers and  retailers.  The  wholesalers  are,  for 
the  most  part,  older  boys  employed  by  the  news- 
papers to  sell  and  "boost"  their  respective 
papers.  The  wholesalers  "own  corners"  and 
use  groups  of  boys  to  sell  for  them  on  com- 
mission, generally  one  cent  out  of  five.  These, 
in  turn,  engage  smaller  boys  known  as  "strik- 
ers" to  assist  them,  giving  them  a  commission 
out  of  their  own,  which  often  amounts  to  no 
more  than  ten  cents  for  a  whole  day's  work. 
In  these  and  other  ways,  the  real  "newsies," 
the  majority  of  whom  are  but  little  children, 
are  exploited  on  every  hand. 

Another  form  of  exploitation  is  the  corner 
institution.  A  corner  is  any  stand  or  foot- 
hold which  a  boy  claims  as  his  own  by  right 
of  squatter  sovereignty.  Old  and  well-estab- 
lished corners  are  sold  and  leased  at  enormous 
rates.  I  drew  contracts  for  some  which  sold 
at  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars.  Oth- 
ers were  leased  for  two  dollars  a  week  or  for 


154  STREET-LAND 

sixty  per  cent,  of  the  proceeds.  The  ownership 
of  new  corners  is  fought  for  on  mixed  issues 
of  might  and  right.  The  first  claimant  is  gen- 
erally upheld  not  only  by  the  unwritten  law 
of  newsboys,  but  even  by  the  police  officer  on 
the  beat. 

The  newsboy  who  is  determined  to  succeed 
will  sell  both  morning  and  evening.  When 
school  is  not  in  session,  he  will  sell  all  day 
long,  stopping  only  for  short  intervals  while 
waiting  for  new  editions.  This  interval  may 
be  an  hour  or  fifteen  minutes,  but  it  rarely  gives 
him  a  chance  to  have  a  meal  at  home. 

Considering  the  environment,  with  all  its 
dangers,  it  is  obvious  that  newspaper  selling 
has  serious  drawbacks  too  lightly  dismissed  by 
newspaper  men  who  are  fully  alive  to  the  gen- 
eral evils  of  child  labor.  Even  the  public,  as 
yet  somewhat  unenlightened  on  the  subject  of 
street  trades,  justifies  them  on  the  ground  that 
they  are  necessary  evils.  But  if  family  neces- 
sity is  relieved  only  to  the  extent  of  twenty- 
five  cents  a  day,  is  such  work  worth  while? 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     155 

Peddler  boys  sell  fruit,  vegetables,  chewing 
gum,  notions,  shoe-strings,  candy  and  novel- 
ties of  all  kinds.  Little  sisters  often  help 
them. 

Fruit  and  vegetable  peddlers  are  numerous 
everywhere,  especially  in  the  markets.  On 
Saturday  between  three  and  eleven  p.  M.,  and 
on  the  eve  of  any  important  holiday,  scores  of 
boys  help  handle  the  market  trade.  They  are 
mostly  Italian  and  Greek  boys,  some  of  them 
only  seven  years  of  age.  The  remuneration 
for  a  whole  day's  work  is  frequently  a  bagful 
of  specked  fruit. 

Novelty  peddlers  break  loose  occasionally, 
appearing  at  fairs,  on  circus  and  football  days 
and,  especially,  during  the  toy  season  before 
Christmas.  Their  numbers  swell  the  unman- 
ageable army  which  fills  Fakirs'  Row  in  every 
city.  They  vanish  as  suddenly  as  they  appear, 
following  the  crowd  and  playing  hide-and-seek 
as  successfully  as  if  they  were  in  the  woods. 
Police  officers  consider  it  unwise  to  chase  them, 
for  on  such  occasions  mob  law  reigns  supreme, 


156  STREET-LAND 

and  the  mob  is  unfailingly  on  the  side  of  the 
"kid." 

The  old-fashioned  bootblack  who  knocks 
about  the  streets  with  his  shine-box  over  his 
shoulder  in  quest  of  trade  is  gradually  being 
eliminated.  The  new  bootblack  "parlors"  are 
proving  the  theory  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Indeed  a  man  can  now  enter  a  mirrored  room, 
climb  into  a  comfortable  chair  and,  by  dropping 
a  nickel  in  the  slot,  get  a  perfect  shine — by 
machinery. 

In  the  larger  cities,  bootblacks  make  no  at- 
tempt to  do  business  during  the  week.  But  on 
Saturdays  and  Sundays  and  on  the  eve  of  holi- 
days, they  appear  with  their  shine-boxes.  Fre- 
quently they  insist  on  shining  shoes  in  spite  of 
rain  and  mud.  If  business  proves  very  slow, 
they  are  forced  to  cut  prices  and  offer  a  shine 
for  three,  or  even  two,  cents.  Often  they  try 
to  sell  papers  on  the  side.  In  license  cities 
they  must  therefore  take  out  two  separate 
licenses. 

When  trade  is  brisk,  shining  shoes  is  far 


Photograph  by  Lewis   W.  Hine  for  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee 

Saturday-Night  "  Shiners  " 


See  page  756 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     157 

more  profitable  than  selling  papers.  In  fact, 
the  money  received  for  bootblacking  is  all 
profit.  The  shine-box  is  easily  made  at  home. 
No  investment  is  needed  for  daily  "stakes"  be- 
yond the  cost  of  blacking,  which  is  very  inex- 
pensive and  represents  a  stock  that  can  be 
watered  indefinitely.  On  those  rare  days  when 
gutter  polishing  is  profitable,  boys  make  from 
fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  and  fifty  cents  a  day. 
Hence  the  persistency  with  which  they  cling  to 
an  occupation  quite  unnecessary  since  the  ad- 
yent  of  the  bootblack  parlors. 

Young  as  many  of  these  bootblacks  are,  they 
remain  on  the  streets  very  late  at  night  in  order 
to  catch  the  theater  crowds.  Such  people  are 
very  proper  in  the  matter  of  getting  their  shoes 
polished  in  honor  of  the  Sabbath,  believing  that 
"a  gentleman  is  no  gentleman  until  he  has  his 
shoes  shined." 

Bootblacking  has  absolutely  no  educational 
value.  It  is  extremely  undignified.  It  com- 
pels the  worker  to  get  down  on  his  knees — • 
often  in  the  gutter — in  order  to  shine  unmo- 


158  STREET-LAND 

lested  by  the  police.  I  remember  one  boy  who 
was  brought  to  court  for  shining  on  the  side- 
walk abutting  a  railroad  station.  The  com- 
pany considered  this  sidewalk  its  private  prop- 
erty. Lingering  there  constituted  a  trespass. 
The  boy  was  permitted  by  the  court  to  put  a 
question  to  the  special  officer  of  the  company. 

"Can't  I  shine  on  the  sidewalk?"  he  asked. 

The  officer  said  "No." 

"Can  I  shine  on  the  street?" 

"No." 

"Where  can  I  shine?" 

"In  the  gutter,"  was  his  answer. 

Simple-minded  peasant  boys  from  Europe 
who  join  the  ranks  of  the  street  workers  are 
likely  to  get  queer  notions  of  America  when 
they  are  thus  deliberately  forced  into  the  gut- 
ter. In  some  cities,  the  gutter  rule  applies  to 
newsboys,  bootblacks  and  peddlers  alike. 

Contrary  to  the  testimony  of  a  police  officer, 
these  immigrant  bootblacks  are  not  a  "happy 
lot."  I  recall  one  who  approached  me  with 
this  question :  "Can't  you  find  me  a  job  ?" 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     159 

"How  about  shining  shoes?  I  thought  you 
liked  that,"  I  said  to  him. 

"Shining  shoes  disturbs  me,"  he  answered. 

This  boy  was  not  satisfied  until  he  entered 
the  High  School  of  Commerce  and  began  a  sys- 
tematic course  of  training  for  a  business  ca- 
reer. 

We  next  come  to  consider  messenger  boys, 
called  by  the  Chicago  Vice  Commission  the 
typical  "night  children"  of  the  streets. 

At  a  hearing  on  a  bill  to  prohibit  young  boys 
from  working  as  night  messengers,  representa- 
tives of  various  telegraph  companies  professed 
to  appear  in  behalf  of  these  boys.  They  of- 
fered the  following  objections  to  the  bill:  In 
the  first  place,  they  had  never  known  or  heard 
of  the  conditions  revealed  by  the  testimony  be- 
fore the  legislative  committee.  In  the  second 
place,  they  declared  that  if  the  conditions  were 
bad,  they  were  just  as  harmful  for  grown-ups 
as  they  were  for  boys  and  that,  therefore,  noth- 
ing was  gained  by  keeping  boys  out  of  it. 
Again,  they  argued,  "Why  not  do  away  with 


160  STREET-LAND 

vice  resorts  instead  of  attempting  to  prohibit 
boys  from  working  at  night?" 

These  arguments  must  have  completely  con- 
vinced the  committee.  The  bill  passed. 

According  to  the  Census  of  1910,  there  are 
about  eighty-six  hundred  messenger,  office  and 
bundle  boys  in  the  employ  of  the  telephone  and 
telegraph  companies,  and  over  eighty  thousand 
in  trade.  The  Census  classifies  messenger 
boys  with  office  and  bundle  boys,  but  they  are 
more  nearly  related  to  newsboys  and  boot- 
blacks. While  they  are  not  working  for  them- 
selves in  the  sense  that  newsboys  are,  neverthe- 
less, they  spend  most  of  their  time  on  the 
streets.  Indeed,  they  are  subject  to  even 
greater  temptations  than  most  street  vendors. 
The  worst  pitfalls  are  due  to  the  night  service. 

There  are  twelve  States  in  the  Union  which 
have,  to  date,  no  time  or  age  limits  for  night 
messenger  service.  Thirty  States  permit  mes- 
senger boys  eighteen  to  twenty-one  years  old 
to  work  after  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  eighteen 
allow  boys  of  sixteen  to  eighteen  to  work  be- 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     161 

tween  seven  and  ten.  There  is  much  hope 
in  the  fact  that  seven  States  have  already  estab- 
lished the  minimum  age  limit  of  twenty-one 
years.  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Massachu- 
setts, Rhode  Island  and  Kentucky  forbid  mes- 
senger boys  under  twenty-one  to  work  after 
ten  o'clock  at  night.  The  model  law,  urged  by 
the  National  Child  Labor  Committee  and  al- 
ready adopted  in  Wisconsin,  prohibits  boys  un- 
der twenty-one  from  being  used  as  messengers 
after  eight  o'clock.  This  should  be  our  na- 
tional standard. 

This  model  law,  unlike  the  model  newsboy 
law,  aims  not  merely  to  regulate  but  totally  to 
prohibit,  night  work. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  work  of  the  mes- 
senger boy,  like  that  of  the  newsboy,  seemed 
justified  on  grounds  of  promotion.  It  was  said 
that  the  messenger  boy  eventually  became  a 
telegrapher  and  the  newsboy,  a  printer.  In  the 
language  of  the  boys,  "there's  nothing  to  it." 
Newsboys  everywhere  complain  that  they  do 
not  get  a  "look-in"  as  apprentices.  The  mes- 


162  STREET-LAND 

senger  boy  can  become  a  telegrapher  only  by 
leaving  the  service  and  going  to  a  school  for 
training.  Indeed,  until  the  establishment  of 
continuation  schools,  almost  the  only  way  either 
a  newsboy  or  messenger  could  get  any  voca- 
tional training  was  to  stay  in  the  trade  long 
enough  to  get  arrested  and  "sent  up"  to  a  re- 
form school.  This  fact  alone  proves  that  mes- 
senger service,  particularly  night  service,  leads 
not  to  telegraphy,  but  rather  to  delinquency. 

The  influence  of  night  messengers  on  street 
boys  is  another  very  good  reason  for  stringent 
prohibition.  It  is  like  the  influence  exercised 
by  boys  fresh  from  the  truant  or  reform  school. 
The  messenger  speaks  as  one  coming  from  a 
new  world — the  underworld.  The  more  inno- 
cent ones  refer  to  him  as  the  "wise  guy  who 
knows  a  lot." 

Perhaps  the  messenger  boy's  greatest  weak- 
ness is  stealing  bicycles.  A  bicycle  is  a  real 
necessity  to  him,  and  he  cannot  save  enough 
from  his  earnings  to  buy  one.  Therefore  he 
makes  off  with  the  first  one  he  can  lay  his  hands 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     163 

on.  This  is  an  interesting  comment  on  the 
wages  as  well  as  the  needs  of  the  work. 

The  messenger  boy,  in  a  sense,  defeats  the 
original  purpose  of  the  messenger  service.  It 
often  takes  longer  for  a  message  to  be  delivered 
from  the  telegraph  office  to  the  addressee  than 
it  takes  to  get  it  over  the  wire.  Suppose  all  tel- 
ephone calls  were  first  received  at  a  central 
office  and  then  delivered  by  a  messenger  boy! 
That  is  exactly  what  is  being  done  with  tele- 
grams. Why  not  have  a  universal,  instead  of 
an  occasional,  system  of  telephoning  telegrams  ? 
It  does  seem  as  though  the  inventive  genius 
that  made  the  telegraph  possible  might  have 
gone  one  step  further  and,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
telephone,  have  brought  the  telegram  directly 
within  reach  of  the  addressee.  In  this  way,  we 
might  have  been  spared  not  only  the  original 
messenger  boy,  but  also  his  numerous  com- 
panions who  become  subject  to  the  many  abuses 
of  the  night  service. 

The  types  described  thus  far  are  not  uncom- 
mon in  current  literature.  They  have  all  re- 


164  STREET-LAND 

ceived  more  or  less  recognition  in  child  labor 
legislation.  But  there  are  subtler  phases  of 
child  labor  in  city  streets  which  are  fully  as 
dangerous  and  yet  completely  outside  the  pale 
of  the  law.  Among  these  neglected  occupa- 
tions are  wood-picking,  baggage-carrying, 
scavenging,  and  the  like. 

Wood-pickers  are  neither  wage-earners,  like 
messenger  boys,  nor  "merchant  princes,"  like 
newsboys.  Perhaps  that  is  why  they  do  not 
appear  in  the  Census  among  those  gainfully  em- 
ployed. Their  work  more  nearly  resembles  the 
time-honored  chore  of  supplying  the  kitchen 
with  fuel.  But  prolonged  tramping  over  miles 
of  city  streets  in  search  of  wooden  boxes  is  a 
far  cry  from  a  trip  to  the  woodpile. 

It  is  urged  that  necessity,  in  the  name  of 
which  child  labor  has  been  tolerated  so  long, 
justifies  wood-picking.  Coal  is  always  high 
when  it  is  most  needed,  and  kindling-wood  is  a 
luxury.  Moreover,  tenement  dwellers  who  are 
in  the  habit  of  sending  their  children  out  for 
wood  do  not  live  in  steam-heated  flats.  The 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     165 

privilege  of  cooking  by  gas  is  not  within  their 
means.  Throughout  the  entire  winter  season, 
they  practically  live  in  the  kitchen.  It  is  the 
function  of  the  wood-pickers  to  keep  the  fire 
from  dying  out.  Delivery  boxes  are  their 
main  asset  A  torn-down  building  is  a  boon. 
But  the  supply  is  by  no  means  regular  or  last- 
ing. When  nothing  is  given  away  free  and 
the  fire  is  about  to  go  out,  then  the  wood-picker 
is  obliged  to  help  himself. 

Another  neglected  phase  of  street  work  is 
baggage-carrying.  "Bag-boys"  loiter  about 
railway  stations  and  subway  exits  at  all  hours, 
always  ready  and  anxious  to  carry  a  traveling 
bag  or  suitcase  for  a  tip.  Very  often  the  un- 
successful newsboy  degenerates  into  a  bag  boy. 
At  regular  intervals,  he  is  chased  away  by  the 
special  officer  on  the  ground  that  he  is  trespass- 
ing on  the  company's  premises.  The  law  oth- 
erwise fails  to  reach  him. 

The  dangers  in  all  these  street  occupations 
to  the  health,  education  and  morals  of  children 
have  not  received  sufficient  attention.  For 


166  STREET-LAND 

some  time,  the  statement  that  street  work  did 
boys  more  harm  than  good  did  not  excite  any 
concern.  Investigations  had  to  show  in  black 
and  white  that  a  large  number  were  physically 
injured  or  morally  ruined  before  the  Legisla- 
ture would  even  listen.  It  counted  for  nothing 
that  these  occupations  nowise  educated  a  boy, 
that  they  did  not  develop  his  faculties,  exercise 
his  mind  or  stir  his  imagination.  Some  com- 
munities are  at  last  waking  up  to  a  fuller  real- 
ization of  the  positive  life  values,  especially 
as  they  relate  to  vocational  fitness. 

We  need  to  be  reminded  that  street  work  en- 
gages children  at  the  most  critical  period  of 
life,  the  period  of  adolescence.  All  physical 
and  mental  processes  are  accelerated  during 
these  years.  Special  tendencies  are  manifested 
in  both  sexes.  Tubercular  disorders,  internal 
diseases  and  peculiar  disturbances  of  the  nerv- 
ous system  are  likely  to  arise  during  these  years 
of  premature  toil.  The  hurry  in  which  a  street 
worker  eats  his  lunch  and  the  unwholesome- 
ness  and  inadequacy  of  the  food  cannot  but  un- 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     167 

dermine  his  digestive  system.  A  child  who  has 
no  time  for  play  is  too  busy  to  grow.  More- 
over, the  rush  and  excitement  of  street  work 
are  likely  to  materially  affect  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. 

These  dangers  should  receive  the  immediate 
and  earnest  attention  of  every  enlightened  com- 
munity. Neither  can  the  State  afford  to  ig- 
nore them.  It  should  take  pains  to  care  for 
these  children  and  should  protect  them  from  the 
dangers  of  the  street — their  workshop — as  it 
does  employees  in  other  dangerous  occupations. 

Street  accidents  are  especially  common 
among  working  children.  The  most  painful 
recollections  from  my  years  of  street  super- 
vision are  of  boys  who  were  run  over  by  elec- 
tric cars  or  express  wagons.  I  recall  a  news- 
boy who  was  awaiting  the  newspaper  train. 
It  came  sooner  than  he  expected.  He  was  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  track  and  attempted  to 
cross — too  late.  I  recall  another  newsboy  who 
fell  while  trying  to  board  a  car.  He  was  seri- 
ously injured  and  was  laid  up  in  the  hospital  for 


168  STREET-LAND 

two  months.  Many  street -workers  are  perma- 
nently crippled  in  such  ways. 

Often,  the  nature  of  the  accident  affects  the 
boy's  mind.  Many  a  bad  boy's  troubles  can  be 
traced  to  maladies  resulting  from  serious  mis- 
adventure. For  instance,  a  fall  producing  con- 
cussion of  the  brain  may  explain  a  bad  boy 
more  fully  than  the  theory  of  juvenile  deprav- 
ity. The  extent  to  which  moral  effects  are 
bound  up  with  physical  dangers  has  not  been 
sufficiently  appreciated  outside  the  four  walls 
of  the  psychopathic  hospital. 

I  know  a  newsboy  who  was  run  over  by  an 
express  wagon  while  crossing  the  street.  He 
was  in  the  hospital  several  weeks  and  returned 
to  his  corner  on  borrowed  crutches.  The  next 
day,  a  stranger  took  pity  on  him  and  bought 
him  a  new  pair.  The  boy  found  that  his  tips 
became  unusually  large.  It  was  clear  to  him 
that  the  crutches  paid.  He  was  reluctant  to 
give  them  up  in  spite  of  orders  from  the  nurse 
to  do  so.  He  became  an  incorrigible  beggar. 

Some  of  the  educational  effects  of  street 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     169 

work  on  children  are  obvious.  The  sleepy- 
heads of  the  ungraded  classes  are  recruited  not 
only  from  those  who  frequent  the  moving  pic- 
ture shows,  but  also  from  those  who  cater  to 
the  needs  of  the  moving  picture  crowds  outside. 
Selling,  shining  or  scavenging  late  at  night  or 
early  in  the  morning  is  not  a  fit  preparation  for 
school  tasks. 

The  overworked  street  boy  is  a  truant  in  tHe 
making.  Premature  toil  encourages  truancy 
in  a  double  sense — breaking  away  from  home 
as  well  as  school.  It  starts  the  child  on  the 
road  to  vagrancy.  Home  desertion,  while  less 
known  than  school  desertion,  is  even  worse. 
The  moment  a  boy  becomes  conscious  of  his 
ability  to  shift  for  himself,  he  assumes  a  false 
air  of  independence  and  frequently  leaves 
home.  When  the  father  who  is  aging  begins 
to  look  to  his  son  for  contributions  to  the  family 
budget,  he  gets  no  response.  There  is  a  strain 
on  all  natural  ties.  This  new  demand  on  the 
growing  boy  creates  difficulties  from  which  he 
is  often  only  too  glad  to  escape. 


170  STREET-LAND 

Pressing  into  industrial  or  commercial  serv- 
ice children  who  are  neither  physically  nor 
mentally  fit  for  work  invites  these  difficulties. 
Child  labor  leads  to  drifting.  The  boy  who  is 
hired  on  Monday,  tired  on  Tuesday  and  fired 
on  Wednesday  illustrates  drifting  at  its  worst. 
The  greatest  danger  of  premature  toil  is  pre- 
mature idleness.  There  are  altogether  too 
many  children  under  sixteen  at  work  and  alto- 
gether too  many  children  over  sixteen  loafing. 
The  misemployed  of  today  become  not  only  the 
unemployed,  but  the  unemployables,  of  tomor- 
row. 

Enlightened  public  opinion  in  this  country 
would  unquestionably  support  child  labor  and 
compulsory  education  legislation  which  would 
spare  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  from 
every  form  of  servitude.  But  the  time  is  com- 
ing when  society,  for  its  own  protection,  will  re- 
gard the  age  of  twenty-one  as  the  really  strate- 
gic turning  point  in  the  career  of  all  men  and 
women.  Up  to  that  point,  life  will  be  not  an 
academic,  but  an  active,  preparation  for  useful 


l'/n, t<>,, ,•<>,,//  hi/  Lewi*   Jr.  Iline  tor  the  National  Child  Labor  Committee 


Fighting  the  Coal  Trust 


CHILD  WORKERS  IN  STREETS     171 

manhood  and  womanhood.  The  experience 
and  testimony  of  parents  and  teachers  every- 
where will  bear  out  the  statement  that  it  is  the 
next  twenty-one  years  in  life,  and  not  the  first, 
which  comprehend  all  success,  great  and  small, 
and  that  the  broader  and  deeper  the  early 
foundations  are  laid  the  greater  is  the  ultimate 
success. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CHILD   WORKERS  AND  VAGRANTS 

Patsy's  career  —  Relation  of  child  workers  to  va- 
grants —  Vagrants  in  law  and  fact  —  Three  types  of 
vagrants:  (i)  The  vagrant  in  embryo,  (2)  The  full- 
fledged  vagrant,  (3)  The  incorrigible  vagrant  — 
Causes  of  vagrancy  —  Results  of  child  labor  in  Eng- 
land ' —  Effects  of  premature  factory  work  on  health  — 
Effects  on  habits  of  industry  —  Street  work  and  va- 
grancy — :  The  vagrant's  defense. 

EVERY  poor  mother  knows  that  the  earlier 
children  begin  to  work,  the  earlier  they  begin 
to  loaf.  This  loafing  is  euphemistically  called 
"walking  the  bricks;"  that  is,  hunting  a  job  or 
plain  "bumming" — the  beginning  of  vagrancy. 

Patsy — American  for  Pasquale — always 
takes  serious  issue  with  his  mother  for  calling 
him  "bum."  Though  he  has  been  out  of  work 
a  long  time,  he  is  American  enough  to  know 
that  "bum"  is  hardly  the  word  for  him. 

He  began  his  industrial  career  very  young. 

172 


CHILD  WORKERS  173 

At  the  age  of  five  he  was  sent  out  every  morn- 
ing to  collect  stale  bread  at  the  restaurants. 

I  took  him  home  one  day  and  found  his 
father,  a  man  of  forty-two,  toasting  his  feet  by 
the  stove.  I  inquired  why  he  did  not  go  to 
work  instead  of  working  Patsy.  He  answered 
that  he  began  at  Patsy's  age.  Most  of  his  life 
he  was  a  pick-and-shovel  man.  Now  he  is  all 
played  out  and  everybody  says,  "you  too  old." 
Therefore  it  is  the  son's  turn  to  work. 

Patsy  left  school  at  the  age  of  fourteen  and 
entered  a  biscuit  factory.  One  day  he  caught 
his  right  hand  in  a  dough  machine  and  lost 
three  fingers.  He  has  been  loafing  on  the 
streets  for  more  than  a  year  "waiting  for  his 
case  to  come  up." 

The  prospect  of  getting  a  large  sum  of  money 
for  damages  on  account  of  a  shop  accident  has 
made  many  an  industrious  boy  a  corner  loafer. 
Both  the  accident  and  its  effects  are  often  the 
inevitable  result  of  premature  toil.  Thus  child 
labor,  however  well  intentioned,  defeats  its 
own  ends. 


174  STREET-LAND 

Patsy  is  not  a  vagrant  in  the  strict  legal 
sense.  He  could  hardly  be  arrested  under  the 
vagrancy  law.  But  if  a  vagrant  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense  is  a  street  wanderer  without 
course  or  compass, 

"Well  pleased  to  pitch  a  vagrant  tent  among 
The  unfenced  region  of  society/' 

Patsy  is  certainly  on  the  high  road  to  vagrancy. 
What  with  being  unfit  for  several  kinds  of  em- 
ployment because  of  the  accident,  and  the  in- 
clination to  wait  for  his  case  to  come  up,  he 
may,  in  the  end,  qualify  even  under  the  statute. 

England,  which  first  experimented  with  child 
labor,  never  fully  realized  its  dangers  until  the 
Boer  War.  Later  Parliamentary  investiga- 
tions of  unemployed  and  unemployables  also  re- 
vealed them  with  ruthless  clearness.  It  would 
not  be  strange  if  this  country,  in  spite  of  its 
being  daily  reenforced  by  the  flower  of  youth 
from  the  strong  nations  of  Europe,  should  some 
'day  have  a  similar  awakening. 

Our  two  million  working  children  suggest  to 


CHILD  WORKERS  175 

us  that  we,  too,  are  prone  to  be  penny  wise  in 
our  eagerness  to  "cash  in"  the  gifts  of  child- 
hood. Those  who  are  daily  testing  child  labor 
(whether  in  factories  or  streets)  by  its  results 
have  become  convinced  that  many  a  vagrant  is 
either  the  father  of  a  working  child  or  the  child 
itself  "gone  to  seed."  Child  worker  and 
vagrant  too  often  represent  the  beginning  and 
end  of  an  unwise  factory  or  street  career.  Not 
every  vagrant  of  today  is  necessarily  a  child 
worker  of  yesterday ;  but  a  study  of  the  causes 
of  vagrancy  and  the  effects  of  child  labor  shows 
a  relation  hitherto  generally  overlooked.  They 
are  not  only  related,  but  seem  to  explain  each 
other. 

All  vagrants  look  alike  to  the  police  officer. 
His  policy  in  the  past  was  everywhere  the  same, 
— to  "vag  'em/'  or,  in  other  words,  arrest  them 
on  a  charge  of  vagrancy  and  commit  them  or 
send  them  on  to  the  next  town,  if  possible.  To 
sustain  his  charge  under  the  law,  the  officer  had 
to  prove  that  his  man  belonged  to  one  of  the 
following  classes : 


176  STREET-LAND 

Idle  persons  who,  not  having  visible  means 
of  support,  are  living  without  lawful  employ- 
ment; 

Persons  wandering  abroad  and  begging,  or 
who  go  about  from  door  to  door,  or  place  them- 
selves in  the  streets,  highways,  passages  or 
other  public  places  to  beg  or  receive  alms ; 

Persons  wandering  abroad  and  visiting  tip- 
pling shops  or  houses  of  ill-fame,  or  lodging  in 
groceries,  outhouses,  market-places,  sheds, 
barns  or  in  the  open  air,  and  not  giving  a  good 
account  of  themselves. 

This  feeble  attempt  at  the  classification  of 
vagrants  in  American  statutes  of  today  marks 
the  advance  made  since  the  passage  of  the  old 
English  statute  in  which  vagrants  were  poeti- 
cally described  as  "persons  who  wake  on  the 
night  and  sleep  on  the  day,  and  haunt  custom- 
able taverns  and  alehouses  and  rout  about ;  and 
no  man  wot  from  whence  they  come  nor 
whither  they  go." 

"No  man  wot  from  whence  they  come  nor 
whither  they  go/'  is  a  na'ive  confession  of  ig- 
norance not  found  in  modern  statutes. 


CHILD  WORKERS  177 

Officially,  vagrants  have  always  been  dealt 
with  en  masse.  All  studies  in  print,  with  a  few 
worthy  exceptions,  deal  with  them  in  terms  of 
figures  and  percentages,  much  as  the  present 
literature  on  immigration  treats  our  immi- 
grants. But  you  cannot  indict  a  class  any 
more  than  you  can  indict  a  nation. 

Vagrants  are  not  only  human,  but  altogether 
too  common,  if  they  are  rightly  classed  as  "idle 
persons  who,  not  having  visible  means  of  sup- 
port, are  living  without  lawful  employment/' 
Leave  out  the  word  "lawful"  and  then  ask  your- 
self if  many  persons  you  know  do  not  come 
dangerously  near  answering  the  description. 

Their  past  industrial  careers,  if  analyzed, 
would  throw  much  light  on  their  present  va- 
grant positions.  A  study  of  every  vagrant's 
life  brings  one  to  the  inevitable  conclusion  that 
the  roots  of  vagrancy  are  deeply  imbedded  in 
distorted  childhood. 

Here  are  the  stories  of  three  flesh-and-blood 
vagrants.  They  illustrate  the  types  com- 
monly accepted  in  the  underworld :  the  "hobo" 


i;8  STREET-LAND 

who  "wants  work/'  the  tramp  who  "won't 
work"  and  the  "bum"  who  "can't  work."  P. 
B.  is  a  young  man  who  tramped  much  in  a  vain 
search  for  work — a  "hobo"  or  vagrant  in  em- 
bryo. J.  K.  is  a  man  of  middle  age  who  trav- 
eled extensively  pretending  to  look  for  work  but 
gradually  succumbing  to  the  wanderlust — a 
tramp  or  full-fledged  vagrant.  M.  W.,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  an  old  man  who  could  not  work 
if  he  would — a  true  "bum"  or  incorrigible 
vagrant.  Their  stories  represent  three  distinct 
stages  of  vagrancy  and  approximately  describe 
the  classes  outlined  in  the  statutes. 

I  made  the  acquaintance  of  these  men  at  the 
Wayfarers'  Lodge,  their  temporary  home. 
But  it  is  natural  that  the  first  one  should  have 
made  his  headquarters  at  a  free  employment 
office ;  the  second,  in  a  municipal  lodging  house ; 
the  third,  in  a  pauper  institution. 

P.  B.,  an  Italian,  eighteen  years  old,  was  born 
in  New  York.  Having  no  brothers  or  sisters, 
he  was  left  alone  in  the  world  at  the  age  of 
eleven,  when  his  parents  died.  He  left  school 


CHILD  WORKERS  179 

immediately  and  sold  papers,  living  in  the 
Newsboys'  Lodging  House  until  he  was  six- 
teen. Then  he  entered  a  mill.  While  at  work, 
he  "smashed"  his  thumb.  After  four  months 
in  the  hospital,  he  found  occasional  work  as  a 
farm  hand.  He  tramped  from  town  to  town 
looking  for  steady  employment — without  suc- 
cess. 

One  cold  night  in  January,  he  "beat"  his 
way  from  Providence  to  Boston  on  a  freight 
train.  After  an  all-night  freeze,  he  woke  up  to 
find  himself  in  a  box-car  which  had  been 
side-tracked.  He  emerged  penniless.  He 
hung  about  employment  offices  by  day  and  slept 
in  the  Wayfarers'  Lodge  at  night,  glad  to  saw 
wood  for  hard  tack  and  soup  in  the  morning — 
often  his  only  meal.  Soon  he  was  turned  out 
of  the  Lodge — the  home  of  the  homeless — and 
reduced  to  begging  for  both  food  and  shelter. 
In  this  condition  I  found  him,  a  vagrant  in 
embryo. 

J.  K.  is  Irish",  twenty-seven  years  old.  He 
was  born  in  Hudson,  Massachusetts.  When 


i8o  STREET-LAND 

he  was  eight  months  old  his  father  died,  leaving 
a  large  family.  At  the  age  of  five,  J.  entered 
school.  He  suffered  from  continuous  eye- 
strain  until  the  age  of  thirteen,  when  he  turned 
blind.  An  operation  restored  sight  to  the  left 
eye  only.  He  returned  to  school  and  was  grad- 
uated. He  had  sold  papers  ever  since  he  was 
six  years  old.  At  fifteen  he  became  a  bell  boy. 
He  traveled  all  over  New  England  and  back 
and  forth  from  Maine  to  Florida.  At  nine- 
teen he  entered  a  pulp  mill.  After  drifting 
from  mill  to  mill,  he  finally  came  to  Boston.  I 
met  him,  too,  at  the  Wayfarers'  Lodge.  On 
learning  his  story,  I  "loaned"  him  money  to  re- 
turn home.  A  week  later  I  found  him  in  the 
"drunk"  pen  of  a  Boston  court — the  last  I  ever 
saw  of  him.  Clearly  he  was  a  full-fledged 
vagrant. 

M.  W.  is  sixty  years  old,  born  of  American 
parents  in  South  Boston.  /His  father  was  a 
machinist.  He  fractured  his  leg  and  died 
when  M.  was  ten  years  old.  The  boy  attended 
school  regularly  and  never  "hooked  jack"  ex- 


CHILD  WORKERS  181 

cept  one  day  when  he  went  to  see  the  sudden 
overflow  of  Stony  Brook.  At  thirteen  he  was 
graduated  from  the  grammar  school.  His  first 
work  was  as  cash  boy.  Then  he  became  bundle 
boy,  tobacco  stripper  and,  finally,  meat  cutter  at 
six  hundred  dollars  a  year.  He  married  at  the 
age  of  twenty-seven.  Eight  months  later  the 
meat  market  burned  down.  He  turned  com- 
mon laborer  and  drifted  from  city  to  country, 
doing  haying  and  chores  for  his  keep  and  leav- 
ing his  wife  uncared  for. 

After  tramping  all  over  New  England,  he 
returned  to  Boston.  He  slept  on  the  Common 
and  begged  for  food.  For  some  time,  he  was 
suspected  by  the  police.  Finally,  he  was  ar- 
rested in  a  raid  made  on  the  Wayfarers'  Lodge 
and  sent  to  the  State  Farm  for  six  months. 
Later  he  was  sent  for  eighteen  months,  and 
again  for  two  years.  When  I  saw  him,  he  was 
wintering  at  the -Lodge,  washing  dishes  for 
"feed  and  bunk,"  expecting  to  be  turned  out 
into  the  street  in  the  spring  and,  eventually,  to 
be  sent  to  the  State  Farm. 


182  STREET-LAND 

"As  you  look  over  your  past/'  I  askVd  him, 
"what  do  you  think  was  your  main  trouble?" 

"No  trade,"  he  answered  positively.  But  I 
know  from  other  sources  that  drink  had  much 
to  do  with  it. 

What  are  the  causes  of  vagrancy  as  revealed 
in  these  three  life  studies :  No  trade  ?  Unem- 
ployment? Accident?  Drink?  Clearly  the 
causes  are  diverse  and  many:  some  primary, 
some  secondary,  and  all  so  intricately  combined 
that  disentanglement  is  almost  impossible. 

One  thing  is  certain:  All  three  tasted  the 
bitter-sweets  of  adversity  quite  early  in  life,  at 
the  age  intended  for  growth  and  play  and  the 
pure  joy  of  living.  Each  one  began  work  in 
strict  adherence  to  the  American  policy  of 
starting  early  in  life.  Moreover,  no  one  of 
them  was  prepared  for  work  in  any  general  or 
special  school.  Neither  their  street  nor  fac- 
tory apprenticeship  fitted  them  for  any  life  call- 
ing. 

I  talked  with  each  man  about  his  education. 
It  was  practically  the  same  in  all  cases, — the 


CHILD  WORKERS  183 

three  R's  in  various  combinations.  Yet  one 
had  been  educated  more  than  half  a  century 
ago  and  in  Boston ;  another  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury ago  and  in  the  country;  and  the  third  but 
a  decade  ago  and  in  New  York. 

Each  was  born  in  a  totally  different  indus- 
trial situation.  But  they  all  started  early,  too 
early.  Small  wonder  they  all  failed.  It  would 
have  been  surprising  if  they  had  not. 

An  important  study  of  vagrants,  made  by  the 
acting  superintendent  of  the  New  York  munici- 
pal lodging  house,  throws  new  light  on  the 
causes  of  vagrancy.  Of  the  two  thousand  men 
examined,  the  majority  were  found  to  be  in  the 
"very  prime  of  life."  One  hundred  were  un- 
der the  age  of  twenty-one.  A  large  number 
of  these  men  were  unemployable  because  of  de- 
fective mentality  or  physical  disability.  A 
greater  number  could  not  find  work  because 
they  had  no  trade.  Very  few  were  found  to  be 
habitual  loafers  and  confirmed  beggars.  The 
most  significant  fact  is  that  most  of  these 
yagrants  came  neither  from  the  country  nor 


184  STREET-LAND 

from  abroad,  but  were  finished  products  of  city 
life. 

Now  let  us  turn  from  the  causes  of  vagrancy 
to  the  effects  of  child  labor.  These  effects 
were  first  felt  in  England,  where  children  were 
permitted  to  be  pressed  into  industrial  service 
long  before  America  was  fully  established  as 
a  nation. 

As  early  as  1796,  the  physicians  of  Manches- 
ter, acting  as  a  Board  of  Health,  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolution: 

"Resolved :  That  the  large  factories  are  gen- 
erally injurious  to  the  constitution  of  the  chil- 
dren employed  in  them,  from  the  close  confine- 
ment which  is  enjoined,  from  the  debilitating 
effects  of  hot  and  impure  air  and  from  want  of 
active  exercises  which  nature  points  out  as  es- 
sential in  childhood  and  youth  to  invigorate  the 
system  and  to  fit  our  species  for  the  employ- 
ments and  for  the  duties  of  manhood.  The  un- 
timely labor  of  the  night  and  the  protracted 
labor  of  the  day,  with  respect  to  children,  not 
only  tend  to  diminish  future  expectations  as 
to  the  general  sum  of  life  and  industry  by  im- 
pairing the  strength  and  destroying  the  vital 


CHILD  WORKERS  185 

stamina  of  the  rising  generation,  but  it  too 
often  gives  encouragement  to  idleness,  extrav- 
agance and  profligacy  in  parents,  who,  con- 
trary to  the  order  of  nature,  subsist  by  the  op- 
pression of  their  offspring." 

England  had  been  thus  cautioned  before  it 
was  too  late.  Men  well  qualified  to  speak  had 
advised  her  that  if  her  little  children  were  al- 
lowed to  work  she  might  soon  have  to  reckon 
not  only  with  a  class  of  worn-out  workmen  on 
the  brink  of  vagrancy,  but  also  with  an  in- 
creased vagrant  and  pauper  class  recruited 
from  the  parents  whom  the  children  were 
forced  to  subsidize  by  their  labor. 

England  paid  little  heed  to  the  solemn  warn- 
ing. The  whole  body  of  child-labor  legislation 
from  1796  (when  the  Manchester  Board  of 
Health  wisely  demanded  a  "general  system  of 
laws")  to  the  Boer  War  presents  a  series  of 
palliatives  which  only  mitigated  the  evil. 

What  was  the  result?  The  blow  that  the 
wise  men  had  foreseen  fell  with  the  Boer  War. 
In  one  day,  it  seemed,  the  whole  nation  awoke 


i86  STREET-LAND 

to  the  fact  that  its  physical  vigor  was  appreci- 
ably sapped.  It  had  no  material  for  soldiers. 
The  percentage  of  rejections  at  the  enlistment 
stations  was  appalling.  A  London  newspaper 
asserted  that,  of  eleven  thousand  men  examined 
in  Manchester,  ten  thousand  were  rejected. 
The  standards  were  lowered,  the  tests  made 
easier;  but  the  rejections  continued.  "Regi- 
ments were  patched  together  of  boys  and 
anaemic  youths.  They  were  food  for  the  hos- 
pitals, not  for  powder.  Once  in  South  Africa, 
enteric  swept  them  off  like  flies ;  they  were  only 
the  shells  of  men.  .  .  .  The  English  had  al- 
ways trusted  so  implicitly  in  their  traditional 
physical  stamina.  But  a  change,  tremendous 
but  unnoted,  had  gone  on  in  the  habits  and 
stamina  and  physical  type,"  of  Englishmen,  the 
cumulative  effects  of  which  the  war  made  plain. 
Had  not  the  Manchester  physicians  foretold 
these  results  in  1796?  Had  not  Lord  Macau- 
lay  prophesied  the  same  results  in  1846,  when 
he  said  to  his  countrymen,  "Your  overworked 
boys  will  become  a  feeble  and  ignoble  race  of 


CHILD  WORKERS  187 

men,  the  parents  of  a  more  feeble  progeny"? 

This  country  which,  according  to  Emerson, 
has  always  imitated  England — often  at  its 
worst  as  in  this  matter  of  child  labor — may 
yet  awake  to  a  similar  situation  if  its  two  mil- 
lion working  children  are  not  given  better  pro- 
tection, more  training,  more  care.  The  Na- 
tional Government  has  thus  far  done  nothing 
more  than  to  count  them.  We  have  not  even 
begun  to  reckon  the  costs  of  child  labor. 

What  will  its  effects  be  upon  the  health  of  the 
children  and  their  future  in  industry?  Will 
they  be  more  productive,  more  efficient,  because 
of  their  early  start?  Or  will  their  premature 
toil  "tend  to  diminish  future  expectations  as 
to  the  general  sum  of  life  and  industry  by  im- 
pairing their  strength  and  destroying  their  vital 
stamina,"  as  was  prophesied  by  the  Manchester 
physicians  ? 

Unfortunately,  there  is  very  little  scientific 
data  in  this  country  touching  this  most  im- 
portant phase  of  child  labor.  If  we  should 
ask  the  Government  for  information  on  this 


i88  STREET-LAND 

subject  we  should  probably  be  referred  to  a  re- 
port of  the  Bureau  of  Labor  issued  in  1904. 

This  report  "relates  the  employment  of 
children  under  sixteen  years  of  age :  their  earn- 
ings, the  hours  of  labor  required  of  them  and 
other  conditions  affecting  their  well-being." 
Fifteen  thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
children,  found  in  two  hundred  and  fifteen  se- 
lected establishments  located  in  the  thirteen 
leading  industrial  States  of  the  Union,  are  the 
subject  of  this  report.  Concerning  health,  it 
says: 

"Many  of  the  children  seen  in  the  establish- 
ments visited  appeared  to  be  undersized, — the 
pinched,  worn  faces,  the  thin  arms,  the  puny 
bodies  of  many  of  them  giving  evidence  that 
they  were  of  underweight.  Among  the  chil- 
dren reported,  many  were  physically  unfit  for 
the  labor  required  of  them.  A  few  who  began 
work  before  they  were  ten  years  old,  though 
not  actually  broken  down,  were  at  the  age  of 
fifteen  so  worn  out,  their  energies  so  far  ex- 
hausted, that  advancement  in  productive  power 
much  beyond  the  point  already  reached  seemed 


CHILD  WORKERS  189 

quite  improbable  unless  a  period  of  complete 
rest  should  intervene." 

Again,  under  "Conditions  Affecting  Chil- 
dren," the  report  shows  in  detail  the  sinister 
effects  on  the  health  of  working  children  of 
long  hours,  unsanitary  and  unsafe  factory 
conditions  and  the  dangers  of  certain  occupa- 
tions to  life  and  limb. 

Next  in  importance  to  this  federal  report  is 
that  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on 
Industrial  and  Technical  Education.  This  re- 
port presents  the  results  of  an  investigation 
conducted  in  forty-three  cities  and  towns  of 
Massachusetts  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
what  working  children  from  fourteen  to  six- 
teen years  of  age  were  doing,  and  what  the 
educational  and  economic  value  of  these  years 
had  been  and  might  have  been  to  them.  Five 
thousand  four  hundred  and  ninety-five  of  the 
twenty-five  thousand  children  between  fourteen 
and  sixteen  at  work  or  idle  were  followed  into 
three  thousand  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
homes  and  three  hundred  and  fifty-four  estab- 


STREET-LAND 

lishments  representing  fifty-five  selected  indus- 
tries. Thirty-three  and  one-third  per  cent,  of 
these  children  were  found  in  unskilled  indus- 
tries and  sixty-five  per  cent,  in  low-grade  in- 
dustries. 

More  than  one  thousand  of  these  boys  and 
girls  had  worked  for  two  firms,  and  almost  one 
thousand  for  three  or  more  firms,  within  less 
than  two  years.  Out  of  about  a  thousand 
children  who  left  their  first  employment,  more 
than  half  did  so  in  less  than  a  year.  Prema- 
ture fatigue,  lack  of  skill  and  low  wages  were 
found  to  be  partly  responsible  for  this  drifting 
from  job  to  job. 

Think  of  the  effect  upon  the  child  of  such 
constant  shifting  and  waywardness !  The  so- 
called  habit  of  work,  by  which  child  labor  is  so 
often  justified,  will  hardly  stand  by  him  in  later 
years.  It  is  therefore  not  at  all  surprising 
that  he  has  a  strong  distaste  for  work  in  the 
yery  prime  of  life. 

The  effects,  then,  of  premature  toil  are  well 
calculated  to  produce  a  class  of  men  whose  ill 


CHILD  WORKERS  191 

health  and  shiftlessness  would  naturally  pre- 
dispose them  to  vagrancy  in  its  diverse  forms. 

There  is  another  effect  of  untimely  wage- 
earning,  or  money-making,  especially  charac- 
teristic of  street  trades.  It  is  the  sudden  reali- 
zation of  responsibility  following  a  prolonged 
period  of  drift.  This  effect  is  felt  most  keenly 
during  the  transition  from  boyhood  to  man- 
hood, the  post-adolescent  period,  when  the 
street  worker  wakes  up  to  find  that  he  is  no 
longer  a  "kid,"  but  a  man  entitled  to  a  man's 
wage.  Neither  his  work  nor  the  income  an- 
swers his  new  demands. 

He  begins  to  look  for  something  better. 
Everywhere  he  is  asked,  "What  can  you  do?" 
His  ready  answer  is  "I  am  willing  to  do  any- 
thing." But  he  is  told  that,  while  he  may  be 
willing  enough,  he  cannot  be  engaged  because 
he  has  not  the  training  or  skill  required  of  an 
employee  expecting  a  man's  wage.  Then  he 
begins  to  drift,  taking  one  odd  job  after  an- 
other, often  a  dozen  different  jobs  during  the 
year.  He  becomes  what  they  call  in  England 


192  STREET-LAND 

a  "casual."  For  weeks,  often  for  months, 
while  he  is  waiting  for  more  work  to  turn  up, 
he  loafs  about  on  the  streets.  Frequent  recur- 
rences of  these  unemployment  intervals  sooner 
or  later  force  him  to  the  lowest  levels  of  indus- 
try, where  the  unemployed  and  the  unemploy- 
able hopelessly  merge.  He  takes  to  the  street, 
often  to  the  road,  a  full-fledged  vagrant. 

Many  a  street  worker  passes  through  a  criti- 
cal period  of  a  different  sort  and  does  not  al- 
ways come  out  victor.  Having  had  enough  of, 
street  work,  he  resolves  to  "settle  down," — 
generally  at  the  exhortation  of  his  parents. 
He  finds  some  factory  or  office  work  and 
bravely  attempts  to  adjust  himself  to  the  in- 
door life.  But  all  the  early  habits  of  street  life 
work  against  him.  He  longs  for  the  freedom, 
the  crowds,  the  changing  scenes,  the  frequent 
surprises  and  adventures.  A  factory  seems 
like  a  prison  from  which  the  street  is  the  only 
escape.  Many  a  boy  throws  up  one  job  after 
another  until  he  has  tamed  his  vagrant  spirit 
and  made  the  perilous  transition  from  street 


CHILD  WORKERS  193 

to  factory.     But  some  boys  fail  in  the  attempt. 

Abe  recalls  how  he  deserted  the  Special 
Newsboys'  School  which  flourished  in  Boston 
in  the  days  when  selling  papers  seemed  more 
important  than  schooling,  even  in  the  Athens  of 
America.  This  school  had  been  opened  for  the 
convenience  of  children  who  were  working  on 
the  streets.  Instruction  was  given  during  the 
hours  when  business  was  at  a  standstill. 

Abe  had  no  use  even  for  this  part-time 
school.  He  preferred  the  streets  to  school  and 
home.  For  twenty  years,  he  was  engaged  in 
street  work  of  one  form  or  another.  He  de- 
livered papers  and  sold  them  on  street  corners. 
Later  he  paid  children  to  sell  for  him.  Before 
long,  he  became  assistant  circulation  manager 
having  full  charge  of  all  the  sellers  and  car- 
riers of  one  of  the  largest  newspapers  in  New 
England. 

Abe  was  very  bright  and  credited  with  a 
good  business  head.  He  made  friends  with  a 
large  number  of  business  men  of  high  stand- 
ing. From  time  to  time,  he  was  offered  prom- 


194  STREET-LAND 

ising  business  openings.  Against  his  instinct, 
he  began  to  consider  them  seriously  when  he 
faced  the  question  of  marrying.  He  tried  one 
position  after  another  only  to  find  that  he  could 
not  stand  the  confinement.  This  is  exactly 
what  he  had  suspected  and  what  all  his  street 
comrades  prophesied.  After  many  brave  at- 
tempts to  stay  away,  Abe  is  back  on  the  street, 
glad  to  have  his  old  newspaper  job  again. 
This  position  pays  him  as  much  as  any  previous 
business  opening ;  but  the  point  is,  he  could  not 
have  made  the  change  if  he  would.  The  call 
of  the  street  was  irresistible. 

I  recall  the  pathetic  case  of  a  young  man  who 
began  his  life  career  as  a  "puller-in"  in  front 
of  a  pawn-shop.  The  work  of  a  puller-in  is 
not  without  its  fascination  for  the  boy  born 
and  bred  in  Street-Land.  Max  kept  at  it  for 
many  years  in  spite  of  its  ill-repute.  The  day 
came  when  the  shop  was  given  up.  Max 
found  himself  without  a  job  and  without  prepa- 
ration for  any  other  work.  His  face  and 
physique  were  against  him.  After  many  futile 


CHILD  WORKERS  195 

attempts  to  find  something  he  could  do,  he  re- 
turned to  the  old  corner  and  settled  down  to  a 
characteristic  vagrant  life.  He  became  a 
corner  fixture  well  known  to  everybody  in  the 
neighborhood.  It  was  not  until  a  "high-class" 
pawn-shop  of  the  new  type  was  established  on 
the  corner  that  Max  managed  to  get  another 
position  as  puller-in, — this  time  in  the  disguise 
of  door-tender. 

Whether  we  consider  the  facts  in  the  light 
of  a  vagrant's  past  or  in  that  of  a  child  work- 
er's future,  we  are  forced  to  recognize  that  at 
least  certain  causes  of  vagrancy  correspond  al- 
most exactly  with  certain  effects  of  child  labor. 
The  cumulative  evidence  gathered  in  the  last 
ten  years  by  the  National  Child  Labor  Commit- 
tee points  to  the  same  conclusion. 

The  vagrant  himself,  if  allowed  to  sum  up 
his  case,  could  reasonably  make  this  appeal : — 

"Friends,  you  have  permitted  me  in  youth  to 
squander  my  resources  instead  of  conserving 
them.  You  have  encouraged  me  to  sell  papers 
and  shine  shoes  since  I  was  but  a  little  child. 


196  STREET-LAND 

You  have  even  tipped  me  liberally,  meaning  to 
be  good  to  me.  In  the  meantime  I  grew  up 
without  a  trade,  and  now  I  am  at  the  dead  end 
of  a  blind  alley.  I  am  not  as  energetic  as  I 
was.  My  parents  have  long  disowned  me.  I 
can't  make  a  living.  I  have  therefore  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  world  owes  me  a  living." 

And  the  typical  vagrant,  in  the  language  of 
a  newspaper  man,  is  one  who  "so  thoroughly 
believes  the  world  owes  him  a  living  that  he  al- 
ways manages  somehow  to  collect  the  debt." 

The  usual  remedies  for  vagrancy,  such  as 
wood-yards,  wayfarers'  lodges  and  short-term 
sentences  at  workhouses,  do  not  interest  us 
here.  If  it  be  true  that  vagrancy  is  often 
the  anticlimax  of  an  unwise  and  premature  in- 
dustrial career,  our  main  efforts  should  be 
directed  against  such  careers  which,  far  from 
decreasing,  are  increasing, — especially  in  the 
case  of  child  labor  on  city  streets.  How  to 
deal  with  this  type  of  child  labor  is  the  sub- 
ject of  the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WORK:  THE  STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT 

Street  work  and  chanty  —  Inadequacy  of  early 
statutes — -Police  versus  truant  officers  —  Supervisor 
of  Licensed  Minors  —  Beginnings  of  self -govern- 
ment among  street  workers  in  Boston  —  Coopera- 
tion of  child-saving  agencies  —  System  of  inspec- 
tion —  Interviews  with  parents  —  Toledo  Newsboys' 
Association  —  Establishment  of  Boston  Newsboys'  Re- 
public—  Newsboys'  Court  —  Model  code  for  child 
labor  on  the  streets. 

THE  history  of  the  effort  to  regulate  and  con- 
trol the  evils  of  juvenile  street  work  may  be 
summed  up  in  one  phrase:  "From  the  senti- 
mental to  the  sensible."  First  endeavors  were 
characterized  by  humanity  but  were  sadly 
lacking  in  common  sense. 

The  earliest  notion  about  street-trading  chil- 
dren, like  that  about  the  poor,  was  a  fixed  one. 
Their  existence  was  taken  for  granted,  such 

197 


198  STREET-LAND 

was  the  order  of  things.  Their  condition,  far 
worse  in  those  days  than  it  is  now,  was  relieved, 
if  at  all,  out  of  a  sheer  sense  of  pity.  No  per- 
manent cure  was  even  intended.  Prevention, 
in  those  days,  was  still  in  embryo.  Charity  to 
newsboys,  like  charity  to  the  poor,  was  typified 
by  Christmas  dinners  and  summer  picnics. 
Tipping  was  the  most  popular  expression  of  the 
sense  of  pity  toward  the  "poor  little  waifs." 
This  made  many  of  them  beggars  in  disguise. 
To  excite  sympathy,  they  resorted  to  tricks, 
some  of  which  are  still  in  vogue, — such  as  the 
lost-dime  or  the  last-paper  fiction. 

A  kindly-disposed  public  slowly  discovered 
the  connection  between  begging,  gambling  and 
smoking.  As  the  number  of  street-trading 
children  in  every  city  grew,  and  with  them  the 
evils  now  commonly  known,  the  call  for  action 
became  louder  and  stronger.  The  first  in- 
stinct, always  natural  to  a  self-governing  peo- 
ple, was  to  rush  to  the  Legislature.  Statute 
after  statute  was  enacted  in  the  attempt  to 
check  these  evils.  Curiously  enough,  however, 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     199 

.nearly  all  these  statutes  dealt  with  effects 
rather  than  with  causes.  They  were  concerned 
with  the  boys  much  more  than  with  the  par- 
ents and  employers  chiefly  responsible  for  their 
selling.  These  statutes,  therefore,  were  unen- 
forcible  against  the  worst  sinners. 

This  was  not  the  only  difficulty  with  the 
statutes.  The  immediate  practical  drawback 
was  that  there  were  no  specific  provisions  for 
their  enforcement.  The  police  force  was  sup- 
posed to  look  after  the  matter.  The  fact  that 
the  children  for  whom  these  statutes  were 
mainly  intended  were  the  care  of  the  school  de- 
partment rather  than  the  police  department  ap- 
parently passed  unnoticed  by  the  legislators. 
But  the  police  officers  were  keen  enough  to  see 
the  point.  They  contended  that  since  the  ma- 
jority of  the  children  working  in  the  streets 
were  school  children,  the  matter  should  be  left 
to  the  truant  officers.  Much  time  was  lost  dur- 
ing a  period  of  circumlocution  between  the 
two.  Indeed,  though  this  idea  of  educational 
versus  penal  control  is  absolutely  sound,  it  is 


200  STREET-LAND 

still  a  bone  of  contention  between  the  police  and 
truant  departments  in  many  backward  cities. 

As  a  matter  of  common  sense,  police  officers 
ought  not  to  be  given  the  special  care  of  school 
children  trading  in  the  streets,  even  if  they  are 
willing  to  undertake  it.  They  are  not  fitted  for 
such  work.  It  requires  a  kind  of  training 
which  police  officers  do  not  have.  School  chil- 
dren should  be  handled  in  an  educational  and 
not  in  a  penal  manner.  This  is  in  accord  with 
the  new  view  of  the  child.  The  conduct  of 
school  children  on  the  streets,  whether  at  work 
or  play,  ought  to  relate  itself  somehow  to  their 
school  work. 

In  the  language  of  a  police  commissioner, 
"when  a  police  officer  sees  a  violation  of  law, 
even  by  a  small  boy,  the  only  thing  for  him  to 
do  is  to  take  that  boy  to  court/'  No  police  of- 
ficer, strictly  speaking,  has  any  discretionary 
power,  nor  can  he  properly  extenuate  the  cir- 
cumstances in  any  way. 

Much  time  was  also  lost  in  discussion  be- 
tween the  school  department  and  the  factory 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     201 

inspection  department.  The  factory  inspectors 
argued  in  much  the  same  way  as  the  police  of- 
ficers. 

In  the  meantime,  these  early  statutes,  how- 
ever well  intended,  remained  unenf orced  most 
of  the  time.  Every  now  and  then,  newspaper 
districts  and  markets  were  raided  just  as  vice 
districts  used  to  be, — and  with  as  much  effect. 
A  squad  of  officers,  either  police  in  plain 
clothes  or  truant  officers,  went  out  in  hot  pur- 
suit of  the  street  vendors.  This  plan  was  tried 
in  different  cities,  always  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment  and  almost  always  after  investigations 
had  aroused  public  opinion. 

The  results  of  these  raids  were  instantaneous 
but  short-lived.  The  discovery  was  soon  made 
that  a  man,  or  body  of  men,  appointed  in  the 
heat  of  a  campaign  for  certain  work  is  apt  to 
keep  at  that  work  as  long  as  the  campaign  is 
hot.  The  moment  it  cools  off,  however,  or  is 
swept  aside  by  another  campaign,  the  squad  is 
detailed  on  another  job. 

Finally  after  years  of  blundering,  it  occurred 


202  STREET-LAND 

to  the  friends  of  street  children  in  Boston  that 
the  thing  to  do  was  to  organize  a  special  de- 
partment under  the  authority  of  the  School 
Committee  and  charge  it  with  the  enforcement 
of  street-trade  laws  especially  affecting  school 
children. 

Adopting  this  plan,  the  Boston  School  Com- 
mittee created  the  office  of  Supervisor  of 
Licensed  Minors  in  1906.  His  chief  duty  was 
to  enforce  the  regulations  covering  all  licensed 
minors.  It  was  understood  at  the  outset  that 
the  Supervisor  was  not  to  go  at  his  work  inde- 
pendently or  single-handed.  He  was  expected 
to  seek  the  co-operation  of  all  agencies  dealing 
with  this  class  of  children.  Only  by  so  doing 
could  he  hope  to  cover  the  field.  Parents, 
teachers,  truant  officers,  police  officers,  proba- 
tion officers,  news  agents,  street-car  conductors 
and  the  public  in  general  were  asked  to  help. 
It  was  the  business  of  the  Supervisor  to  see  that 
they  did  help.  If  they  did  not,  he  was  to  dis- 
cover the  reasons,  if  any  existed,  and  remove 
them. 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT    203 

Other  functions  of  the  Supervisor  of  Li- 
censed Minors  were  largely  the  outcome  of  the 
needs  of  the  work.  First  of  all,  he  was  placed 
in  full  control  of  the  license  system  and  made 
responsible  for  its  many  details.  All  applica- 
tions for  licenses  were  to  be  investigated  and 
passed  upon  by  him  before  being  recommended 
to  the  School  Board.  A  fair  average  of  at- 
tendance, conduct  and  scholarship  was  insisted 
upon  in  all  cases.  The  health  of  every  appli- 
cant was  taken  into  consideration.  The  li- 
censes of  minors  who  fell  below  these  stand- 
ards were  to  be  either  suspended  or  revoked  on 
recommendation  of  the  Supervisor.  Flagrant 
offenders  of  the  law  were  to  be  taken  by  him  to 
the  Juvenile  Court.  For  such  purposes,  the  Su- 
pervisor was  clothed  with  the  powers  of  truant 
officer  and  constable.  His  most  important 
work  was  to  make  frequent  home  and  school 
visits  and  street  inspections  in  order  to  keep  in 
touch  with  the  licensed  minors  through  the  dif- 
ferent channels  of  the  home,  the  school  and  the 
street. 


204  STREET-LAND 

It  was  clear  at  the  outset  that  successful  su- 
pervision of  street  work  depended  largely  upon 
a  better  system  of  licensing  minors  and  of  en- 
forcing license  laws.  But  it  was  even  more 
clear  that  nearly  everything  depended  upon  the 
spirit  of  the  boys  themselves.  Therefore  it 
seemed  especially  necessary  to  create  an  esprit 
de  corps  among  them.  Every  worker  with 
boys  knows  that  if  he  has  the  boys  with  him 
he  can  do  everything  and  that  without  them  he 
can  do  nothing.  The  Supervisor  started  out 
on  the  assumption  that  the  best  way  to  enforce 
the  law  was  to  get  the  boys  to  enforce  it  them- 
selves. His  first  move  was  to  present  the  regu- 
lations in  simple  language  and  advise  the  boys 
to  adopt  them  one  by  one  as  their  own. 

Boys  usually  will  accept  all  rules  and 
regulations  which  are  just  and  reject  all 
those  which  are  unjust.  There  was,  then, 
no  reason  for  fearing  that  they  would  not 
adopt  them.  Why  not,  pray,  test  the  justice 
of  our  laws  by  consulting  those  for  whom  they 
are  intended,  even  when  they  apply  to  newsboys 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     205 

and  bootblacks  ?  Is  not  this,  after  all,  the  fun- 
damental difference  between  tyranny  and  de- 
mocracy ?  As  a  matter  of  fact,  whenever  boys 
in  a  school  or  on  a  playground  are  given  a 
chance  to  make  their  own  rules,  they  prove  to 
be  more  strict,  yet  more  workable,  than  any 
rules  imposed  upon  them  from  without.  And 
once  you  get  boys  to  feel  that  the  rules  are  of 
their  own  making,  you  will  find  that  they 
tolerate  no  breaking. 

The  idea  of  being  consulted  made  the  boys 
enthusiastic  and  put  initiative  into  them. 
Largely  of  their  own  accord,  they  petitioned 
the  School  Board  to  raise  the  age  for  selling 
papers  from  ten  to  eleven  and  for  shining  shoes 
from  ten  to  twelve.  They  also  petitioned  in 
favor  of  changing  the  time  limit  for  night  work 
from  ten  o'clock  to  eight. 

With  the  help  of  the  newsboys  the  license 
system  was  entirely  reorganized.  New  forms 
of  applications  and  badges  were  devised  to  meet 
the  many  technical  difficulties  of  the  law.  The 
new  badge,  now  in  use  in  many  cities,  has  the 


206  STREET-LAND 

essence  of  the  law  printed  on  its  face  and  the 
boy's  name,  home  address  and  school  in  his  own 
handwriting  on  the  back.  The  badge  thus 
serves  a  double  purpose, — as  a  daily  reminder 
of  the  law  and  an  immediate  and  absolute  iden- 
tification of  the  licensee. 

The  methods  of  enforcement  were  strength- 
ened by  gradually  winning  the  cooperation  of 
newspaper  men,  by  enlisting  the  older  boys  and, 
when  necessary,  by  securing  the  aid  of  the  po- 
lice force  and  the  Juvenile  Court.  All  other 
child-helping  agencies  also  gladly  cooperated. 

A  system  of  inspection  was  put  into  effect. 
A  schedule  was  devised  covering  all  schools 
having  ten  or  more  street  vendors.  Each 
school  was  visited  once  a  month ;  at  which  time 
licenses  were  examined,  lost  badges  replaced, 
rules  discussed  and  explained,  and  lapses  in  con- 
duct and  attendance  checked.  By  this  method 
of  school  inspection,  the  efficiency  of  the  license 
system  was  tested  from  time  to  time.  The 
main  purposes  of  the  school  visits  were  to  re- 
port to  the  schools  the  street  conditions  under 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     207 

which  these  licensed  boys  sell  and  to  ascertain 
through  the  schools  to  what  extent  street  con- 
ditions influence  the  attendance,  conduct  and 
scholarship  of  the  children. 

Home  visits  were  made  when  cases  required 
the  immediate  attention  of  the  parents.  Fre- 
quently parents  were  invited  to  the  School 
Committee  rooms  to  be  interviewed  on  serious 
complaints  against  their  boys.  The  records 
show  that,  in  a  majority  of  cases,  an  interview 
with  the  parents  was  just  as  effective  as  tak- 
ing the  boy  to  court.  Of  about  five  hundred 
cases  of  specific  complaints  dealt  with  in  one 
year,  ninety-five  per  cent,  were  settled  satisfac- 
torily out  of  court. 

The  following  is  a  good  illustration  of  this 
class  of  case :  B  was  complained  of  by  a  news- 
dealer for  striking  another  newsboy.  The  sec- 
ond boy  accidentally  slipped  and  fell  against  the 
window-pane  of  the  newsdealer's  store  and 
broke  it.  The  newsdealer  insisted  on  our  put- 
ting B  into  court.  All  parties  in  the  case,  in- 
cluding B's  parents,  were  asked  to  come  to  the 


208  STREET-LAND 

School  Committee  rooms  to  thrash  out  the  mat- 
ter. At  first  the  newsdealer  demanded  court 
proceedings  or  fifteen  dollars  indemnity.  B's 
parents  were  equally  anxious  to  enter  court 
proceedings  against  the  dealer  for  interfering 
with  their  boy's  business.  Finally  the  parents 
agreed  to  pay  five  dollars  indemnity,  provided 
the  newsdealer  would  waive  any  further  claim 
and  agree  not  to  interfere  with  their  boy's 
trade.  The  dealer  accepted  the  offer  and  the 
case  was  settled. 

These  first-fruits  of  supervision  were  ob- 
tained during  the  two  years  1906-1908. 

Early  in  1909,  the  Supervisor  was  authorized 
to  visit  the  principal  American  cities  for  the 
purpose  of  finding  out  what  was  being  done 
elsewhere  for  children  trading  in  the  streets. 
New  York,  Philadelphia,  Chicago,  St.  Louis, 
Washington,  Detroit,  Toledo,  and  many  other 
cities  were  visited.  None  of  these  cities  had 
any  effective  license  system,  but  some  had  or- 
ganized associations  for  the  purpose  of  combat- 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     209 

ing  the  evils  of  smoking,  swearing,  begging 
and  gambling.  Experience  had  shown  that 
ready  money  and  its  temptations,  and  the  influ- 
ence of  grown-ups,  made  these  evils  common 
among  street  vendors. 

Toledo  especially  attracted  attention  because 
of  its  methods  of  dealing  with  just  these  evils. 
The  Toledo  Newsboys'  Association  had  sixty 
newsboy  captains,  each  one  in  charge  of  a 
group  of  newsboys  living  or  selling  in  a  certain 
district  of  the  city.  It  was  the  business  of  the 
captains  and  their  lieutenants  to  see  that  the 
boys  did  not  violate  the  rules  which  they  them- 
selves had  approved  prior  to  joining.  The  To- 
ledo Association  had  been  in  existence  many 
years  and  had  produced  some  splendid  types  of 
young  men, — among  them  congressional  pages 
and  probation  officers.  This  unique  work,  con- 
ducted by  John  E.  Gunckel,  won  the  support  of 
the  members  of  the  School  Board  and  the  Su- 
perintendent of  Schools,  as  well  as  a  number  of 
public-spirited  citizens.  The  work  is  now 


210  STREET-LAND 

perpetuated  by  a  one-hundred-thousand-dollar 
building  dedicated  to  the  working  boys  of  the 
city. 

As  a  result  of  what  was  seen,  it  was  recom- 
mended to  the  Boston  School  Board  that  the 
newsboys,  who  constituted  ninety  per  cent,  of 
the  street  workers,  be  organized  into  a  News- 
boys' Republic  for  the  double  purpose  of  secur- 
ing more  effective  enforcement  of  the  laws  and 
of  dealing  with  evils  which  were  outside  the 
pale  of  the  law. 

Immediately  upon  the  approval  of  this  plan 
by  the  School  Board,  elections  were  held  in  the 
leading  schools  of  the  city.  In  each  school 
having  ten  or  more  licensed  newsboys,  one 
newsboy  captain  and  two  lieutenants  were 
elected.  These  newsboy  captains  and  lieuten- 
ants assembled  in  conference  immediately  after 
their  election.  Upon  being  installed  in  office 
by  the  Chairman  of  the  School  Board  and  the 
Superintendent  of  Schools,  they  organized 
themselves  into  a  congress  and  eagerly  entered 
upon  a  discussion  of  the  rules  and  regulations 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     211 

governing  their  trade.  This  first  session  came 
to  an  abrupt  end  owing  to  the  irresistible  temp- 
tation to  accept  an  invitation  on  the  part  of  the 
Superintendent  of  Schools  to  a  luncheon  at  the 
City  Club. 

Many  sessions  were  held  afterwards,  deal- 
ing with  the  same  questions  and  resulting  in 
the  adoption  of  tke  following  Constitution : 

PREAMBLE 

We,  the  members  of  the  Newsboys'  Republic, 
in  order  to  elevate  the  conditions  of  the  dis- 
tricts in  which  we  live  and,  filled  with  a  desire 
for  our  mental,  physical,  social  and  moral  ad- 
vancement and  such  other  benefits  to  ourselves 
and  our  community  as  are  gained  by  organiz- 
ing, do  ordain  and  establish  this  constitution. 

NAME 

This  organization  shall  be  known  as  the 
Newsboys'  Republic. 

OBJECT 

The  object  of  this  club  shall  be  to  elevate  the 
conditions  of  our  surroundings;  to  derive  the 
benefits  that  are  gained  by  organizing  and  for 
moral,  mental,  physical  and  social  advance- 


212  STREET-LAND 

ment;  and,  above  all,  to  enable  newsboys  to 
KEEP.  OUT  OF  COURT. 

MEMBERSHIP 

Newsboys  regularly  attending  school  and 
proving  themselves  legitimate  licensed  news- 
boys shall  be  eligible  to  membership,  provided 
they  live  up  to  the  rules  and  principles  of  the 
organization. 

OFFICERS 

The  officers  of  this  Republic  shall  be :  a  chief 
captain,  a  general  secretary  and  a  staff  of 
school  captains. 

ELECTION   OF   OFFICERS 

The  school  captains  shall  be  nominated  and 
elected  annually  by  the  members  of  the  Repub- 
lic in  their  respective  schools,  on  a  day  chosen 
by  the  Superintendent  of  Schools,  in  schools 
having  at  least  ten  newsboys. 

The  chief  captain,  general  secretary  and  ex- 
ecutive council  shall  be  elected  annually  by  all 
captains  at  the  first  congressional  meeting  of 
said  captains  on  the  Saturday  following  elec- 
tion. 

COMMITTEES 

Special  committees  shall  be  appointed  from 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     213 

time  to  time,  as  occasion  requires,  by  the  chief 
captain. 

MEETINGS 

Meetings  to  be  held  in  accordance  with  cir- 
cular letter  sent  by  the  chief  captain. 

The  following  code  was  adopted : 
Every  newsboy 

Must  fasten  his  badge  to  the  right  breast  of 
his  outside  garment  in  such  a  way  that  it  will 
be  in  plain  sight  all  the  time  and  not  be  covered 
by  his  papers. 

Must  not  sell,  lend  or  give  his  badge  to  any 
other  boy,  or  let  any  other  boy  have  his  badge 
for  any  purpose. 

Must  not  let  any  boy  who  has  not  been 
granted  a  license  and  given  a  badge  have  papers 
to  sell. 

Must  not  allow  any  boy  who  has  not  been 
granted  a  license  and  given  a  badge  to  sell  for 
him,  or  assist  him,  or  go  around  with  him. 

Must  report  at  once  to  the  Superintendent 
the  loss  of  his  badge. 

Must  not  sell  in  or  on  a  street  car. 

Must  not  sell  during  school  hours. 

Must  not  sell  after  eight  o'clock  at  night  ex- 
cept on  election  days. 


214  STREET-LAND 

Must  not  sell  after  ten  o'clock  at  night  on 
election  days. 

Must  not  stand  around  with  other  boys. 

Must  not  allow  other  boys  to  stand  around 
with  him. 

Must  not  make  any  unnecessary  noise. 

Must  not  disturb  or  annoy  people  by  teasing 
them  to  buy,  or  in  any  other  way. 

Must  attend  school,  both  sessions,  every  day. 

Must  give  up  his  badge  to  his  school  teacher 
when  notified  that  his  license  is  to  be  taken 
away  or  suspended,  or  at  the  end  of  the  time 
for  which  it  is  issued,  or  before  leaving  the 
city  if  he  moves  away,  or  when  he  gives  up  sell- 
ing if  he  does  not  intend  to  sell  again. 

The  following  instructions  were  given  the 
newsboy  captains: — 

It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  newsboy  captains 

First:  To  see  that  the  rules  printed  on 
the  badge  are  faithfully  kept. 

All  violations  of  the  license  rules  must  be 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  master  of  the 
school  of  which  the  newsboy  is  a  pupil  and,  at 
his  direction,  must  be  referred  to  the  News- 
boys' Trial  Board. 

Second :     To  see  that  all  boys  not  licensed 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     215 

shall  not  interfere  with  the  business  of  any 
licensed  newsboy. 

In  order  to  discharge  these  duties  in  a 
proper  manner,  all  captains  are  ordered  to 
have  : 

I.      WEEKLY    INSPECTION    ON    STREET 

Captains  shall  inspect  their  respective  dis- 
tricts at  least  once  a  week  and  confer  with 
their  masters  on  all  cases  requiring  immedi- 
ate action. 

II.      MONTHLY   INSPECTION   IN   SCHOOL 

Captains  shall,  with  the  approval  of  their 
masters,  examine  all  licenses  and  badges  once 
a  month  on  a  day  set  by  the  master.  On 
that  day,  all  boys  having  anything  to  do  with 
papers,  except  those  who  deliver,  must  pro- 
duce a  badge.  Boys  who  have  lost  their 
badges  must  get  new  ones,  if  their  conduct 
and  attendance  are  satisfactory,  or  else  must 
stop  selling  altogether,  or  until  such  time  as 
their  conduct  and  attendance  improve  suffi- 
ciently to  entitle  them  to  a  new  badge. 

III.      QUARTERLY   MEETINGS   OF   CAPTAINS 

Captains  shall  have  quarterly  meetings  in 


216  STREET-LAND 

January,  April,  June  and  September;  when 
all  matters  relating  to  the  general  welfare  of 
the  newsboys  shall  be  taken  up  officially  in 
executive  session. 

IV.      ANNUAL   MEETING  OF   MEMBERS 

Captains  shall  have  full  charge  of  the  an- 
nual Newsboys'  Patriotic  Celebration  which 
takes  place  on  Bunker  Hill  Day,  the  seven- 
teenth of  June,  and  shall  see  to  it  that  all  the 
members  of  their  respective  districts  shall  be 
invited  to  attend  this  annual  gathering;  at 
which  time  the  most  important  matters  re- 
lating to  the  interests  of  the  newsboys  as  a 
whole  are  to  be  acted  upon  by  the  members 
at  large. 

Third:  To  keep  in  touch  with  all  the 
newsboys  of  their  districts ;  to  help  them  out 
if  in  trouble,  to  visit  them  at  their  homes  if 
sick — provided,  however,  they  get  their  mas- 
ters' approval  to  do  so — and  to  give  them 
such  suggestions  and  advice  from  time  to 
time  as  will  enable  them  to  earn  more,  save 
more  and,  above  all,  KEEP  OUT  OF 
COURT,  one  of  the  highest  duties  of  the 
Republic. 

Having  stamped  its  approval  on  the  forego- 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT,     217 

ing  rules  and  regulations,  the  Newsboys'  Re- 
public went  on  record  as  emphatically  disap- 
proving of  smoking,  swearing,  stealing,  beg- 
ging, lying,  gambling  and  any  other  conduct 
unbecoming  a  Young  Citizen. 

A  membership  card  in  the  nature  of  a  decla- 
ration of  citizenship  in  this  Republic  was  then 
worked  out  in  accordance  with  these  sugges- 
tions. This  card  is  reproduced  below  and  ex- 
plains itself. 


MEMBERSHIP  CARD. 

I  approve  of  the  LICENSE  RULES. 
I  disapprove  of  (i)  SMOKING,  (2)  GAMBLING,  or 
any  conduct  NOT  becoming  a  YOUNG  CITIZEN. 


SIGNED. 
BADGE  No 


This  certifies  that  the  above  is  a  Licensed  Newsboy 
and  A  MEMBER  IN  GOOD  STANDING  of  the  Asso- 
ciation. 

The  Boston  School  Newsboys9  Association 


The  actions  of  this  congress  of  newsboy  cap- 
tains and  lieutenants  were  ratified  by  the  three 
thousand  newsboys  of  Boston  at  their  first  an- 


218  STREET-LAND 

nual  convention,  which  met  at  Boston  Theater 
on  Bunker  Hill  Day,  June  17,  1908.  The 
founding  of  the  newsboys'  camp  at  Lake  Mon- 
ponset,  near  Halifax,  Massachusetts,  dates 
back  to  this  first  convention. 

During  the  following  year,  many  congresses 
were  held  by  the  newsboy  captains  and  lieuten- 
ants, the  actions  of  which  were  ratified  at  the 
annual  convention  of  the  newsboys  on  Bunker 
Hill  Day.  The  Newsboys'  Clubhouse  was 
founded  at  this  time. 

The  newsboy  scholarships  at  the  Massachu- 
setts Institute  of  Technology  and  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  to  parallel  that 
founded  at  Harvard  by  the  Newsboys'  Union, 
date  back  to  the  third  annual  convention. 

It  was  this  1910  convention  which  passed  the 
following  resolution : 

"Whereas  so  many  newsboys  get  into  court 
every  year  for  petty  violations  of  the  laws, 
either  through  ignorance  or  thoughtlessness  or 
failure  to  realize  the  consequences,  and  thereby 
bring  discredit  and  shame  upon  themselves, 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     219 

their  families  and  fellow  newsboys,  and 
whereas  the  majority  of  the  newsboys  who  thus 
get  into  court  are  mere  children,  be  it 

"Resolved :  That  we,  the  newsboys  of  Bos- 
ton, in  mass  meeting  assembled  at  Keith's 
Theater  on  Bunker  Hill  Day,  June  17,  1910, 
do  publicly  declare  in  favor  of  establishing  a 
Newsboys'  Court  in  conformity  with  the  laws 
of  the  Commonwealth;  which  court  shall  deal 
with  all  first  offenders  against  the  rules  and 
regulations  governing  their  trade  and  shall 
invite  the  cooperation  of  all  public  departments 
concerned." 

The  School  Board  received  the  petition 
graciously,  and  the  secretary  was  directed  to  re- 
ply to  the  effect  that  the  Board  was  heartily  in 
sympathy  with  the  proposed  plan  and  would  be 
glad  to  have  it  put  into  effect. 

This  Newsboys'  Court,  the  first  in  the  coun- 
try, was  then  organized  in  accordance  with  the 
following  order  issued  by  the  School  Commit- 
tee: 

There  shall  be  a  Trial  Board  consisting  of 
five  members — two  adults,  appointed  annually 
by  the  School  Committee  for  the  term  of  one 


220  STREET-LAND 

year  from  October  15,  1910,  and  three  news- 
boys, elected  annually  from  the  number  of 
newsboy  captains. 

The  Newsboys'  Trial  Board  has  the  power 
to  try  all  cases  of  violation  of  the  license  laws 
and  to  pass  judgment  in  accordance  with  its 
findings.  The  sentences  take  the  form  of  revo- 
cation or  suspension  of  the  transgressor's 
license.  This  court,  too,  is  fond  of  the  proba- 
tion idea.  The  importance  of  the  Trial  Board 
lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  democratic.  This  in- 
sures fairness,  and  thus  wins  the  boy.  The 
judges,  themselves  newsboys,  understand  the 
offender  better  than  a  learned  judge  however 
well-versed  he  may  be  in  formal  law.  Further- 
more, the  Trial  Board  saves  the  boy  a  court 
record.  The  experience  in  judicial  procedure 
which  the  judges  get  is  excellent  training  in 
self-government.  The  fact  that  such  service 
is  paid  for  by  the  City  of  Boston  adds  dignity 
to  the  office  and  the  boy. 

The  interest  which  this  plan  of  supervision 
attracted  from  its  inception  is  an  indication  of 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     221 

the  extent  of  the  problem  of  street  work 
throughout  the  country  and  the  general  search 
for  some  method  of  dealing  with  it.  Soon 
after  the  organization  of  the  Newsboys'  Re- 
public and  the  Newsboys'  Court,  inquiries  for 
information  began  to  come  in  from  many  dif- 
ferent cities, — from  Portland,  Maine,  to  Port- 
land, Oregon;  also  from  Canada  and  England. 
Some  cities,  notably  Milwaukee  and  Birming- 
ham, Alabama,  have  already  adopted  the  sys- 
tem in  whole  or  in  part;  and  many  others  are 
planning  to  do  so. 

Ultimately  every  American  city  will  entirely 
abolish  street  trading  by  school  children.  Un- 
til that  time  comes,  every  city  can  check  many 
of  its  abuses  by  such  a  license  system  and  plan 
of  supervision  as  here  outlined.  Self-govern- 
ment is  the  central  feature  of  the  plan.  It  has 
even  been  inaugurated  in  Sing-Sing  by  its  new 
warden,  Thomas  Mott  Osborne,  who  got  his  in- 
spiration from  the  George  Junior  Republic. 
The  Boston  Newsboys'  Republic  also  derived 
inspiration  from  this  source. 


222  STREET-LAND 

So  long  as  we  have  newsboys,  a  newsboys' 
republic  founded  on  democracy  in  government 
is  far  more  desirable  than  police  control.  It 
represents  the  sound  principle  that  the  cure  for 
our  American  democracy  is  more  democracy, 
especially  among  the  newsboys  who  are  so  un- 
justly persecuted  in  many  large  cities. 

The  Newsboys'  Court  demonstrates  the  pos- 
sibilities of  a  court  for  truants.  There  are 
thousands  of  truants  in  this  country  who  ought 
never  to  see  the  inside  of  any  court. 

The  chief,  perhaps  the  only,  danger  is  that 
this  plan  of  supervision  may  be  employed  by 
cities  which  have  not  even  a  minimum  of  street- 
trade  legislation.  The  plan  would  never  do  as 
a  substitute  for  effective  legislative  control  of 
the  evils  of  child  labor  in  city  streets,  although 
it  does  add  effective  finishing  touches  to  a 
license  system  founded  on  sound  legal  stand- 
ards. 

Such  basic  standards  are  all  best  expressed  in 
terms  of  the  model  child  labor  law  rewritten 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     223 

with  special  reference  to  street  trades.     Sucht 
a  law  should  embody  the  following  principles : 

Street  labor  should  be  prohibited 

1 i )  For  all  male  children  under  the  age  of 
fourteen,  and  for  girls  under  the  age  of  six- 
teen; 

(2)  For  all  male  children  under  sixteen  who 
are  physically  unfit  for  such  employment; 

(3)  For  all  children  under  sixteen  who  can- 
not read  or  write  simple  sentences  in  English; 

(4)  For  all  male  children  under  sixteen  be- 
tween the  hours  of  eight  P.  M.  and  six  A.  M.,  or 
more  than  forty-eight  hours  in  any  week. 

THE  CHILD 

In  order  to  be  licensed,  the  child  should  sat- 
isfy the  officer  appointed  for  the  purpose  that 
it  is 

(1)  fourteen  years  of  age,  or,  if  illiterate, 
sixteen  years  of  age, 

(2)  in  good  health, 

(3)  able  to  read  and  write  simple  sentences 
in  English  and  to  read  and  copy  the  license  law. 


224  STREET-LAND 

THE  PARENT 

The  parent  must 

1 i )  Furnish  under  oath  a  transcript  of  the 
official  record  of  the  birth  of  the  child  and  rec- 
ord of  its  baptism,  or  some  other  satisfactory 
evidence ; 

(2)  Agree  to  keep  the  child  in  school. 

THE  EMPLOYER 

The  employer,  under  this  law,  should  be 
deemed  the  person  who,  for  profit,  supplies  the 
minor  with  articles  to  be  sold  on  the  street.  He 
should  be  required  to  ascertain  whether  or  not 
the  minor  is  properly  licensed. 

THE  OFFICIAL 

(A  Supervisor  of  Licensed  Minors) 

Effective  legislation  for  the  protection  of 
street-trading  children  requires  that  there  be 
a  special  officer,  serving  in  the  capacity  of  Su- 
pervisor of  Licensed  Minors,  entrusted  with 
the  duty  of  enforcing  the  license  law.  Such 
Supervisor  should  give  his  whole  time — not  less 
than  eight  hours  in  a  day — to  the  performance 
of  his  duties ;  viz.,  to 


STORY  OF  AN  EXPERIMENT     225 

1 I )  Patrol  the  streets  to  insure  that  children 
are  not  working  during  the  prohibited  hours, 
or  violating  the  terms  of  their  license  during 
the  legal  hours; 

(2)  Prosecute  all  violations; 

(3)  Submit  an  annual  report. 

THE  SCHOOL 

The  license  system  should  be  in  the  hands  of 
such  a  Supervisor  of  Licensed  Minors  under 
the  auspices  of  the  School  Committee  or  Board 
of  Education  and  thereby  made  a  powerful  in- 
strument for  securing  the  regular  attendance 
at  school  of  all  licensed  minors.  The  Super- 
visor, therefore,  should  be  part  of  the  school 
force  and  should  have  special  truant  and  police 
powers  in  order  to  deal  effectively  with  all  chil- 
dren found  trading  in  the  streets  during  school 
hours  and  prosecute  all  violations. 

THE   PUBLIC 

The  public  should  refrain  from  buying  any 
articles  from  a  minor  who  is  not  licensed,  i.  e., 
who  has  no  badge.  If  the  public  agrees  that 
street-trade  laws  are  desirable,  no  individual 
should  take  it  upon  himself  to  break  these  laws 
either  by  supplying  a  child  with  articles  to  sell 


226  STREET-LAND 

or  by  buying  such  articles  from  a  child  contrary 
to  law.  In  all  cases  of  violation,  the  parent, 
the  employer  or  the  consumer — that  is,  the  per- 
son who  permits  a  child  to  sell,  the  person  who 
supplies  him  with  the  goods  to  sell,  or  the  one 
who  buys  the  goods  from  him — should  be  sum- 
moned to  court  rather  than  the  child  himself. 

This  adult-contributory-delinquency  clause 
is  characteristic  of  all  the  child-labor  laws  re- 
lating to  factories.  There  is  no  good  reason 
why  an  exception  should  be  made  of  street 
work.  Altogether  too  many  children  have 
been  taken  from  the  street  into  court  and  com- 
mitted when  the  persons  who  entered  into  busi- 
ness relations  with  them  would  have  been 
prosecuted  if  adequate  legislation  were  at  hand. 
Such  legislation  would  help  restore  that  respect 
for  law  which  is  now  appreciably  waning  be- 
cause of  a  universal  belief  that  the  weak  are 
punished  while  the  strong  escape. 


CHAPTER  IX 
STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME 

Street  life  a  problem  of  twentieth-century  cities  — 
Children  and  housing  reform  —  Socialisation  of  the 
home— *  The  front-room  as  a  playroom  —  Keeping 
mothers  at  home  —  Use  of  back  yards  for  play  — 
Roof  gardens  —  Model  schools  —  Social  centers  — 
Social  settlements  —  Organic  education  —  Playgrounds 
— r  Play  streets  for  children  —  Organised  street  play  — 
The  Street  Supervisor  —  Plan  of  supervision  —  Street 
pageants  —  The  neighborhood  —  Does  supervision 
pay? — City  planning  —  Passing  of  slum  streets. 

FOR  good  or  evil,  the  street  ranks  with  the 
home  and  the  school  in  molding  child  life  and 
personality.  How  to  extract  the  good  from 
street  life  and  suppress  the  evil ;  how  to  get  the 
street  to  cooperate  rather  than  compete  with 
home  and  school,  our  proudest  institutions, — 
these  are  the  great  educational  problems  of 
twentieth-century  cities. 

There  are  two  distinct  movements  discerni- 
227 


228  STREET-LAND 

ble:  the  first,  an  effort  to  take  (and  keep)  chil- 
dren off  the  streets ;  the  second,  an  attempt  to 
improve  the  conditions  for  children  who  are  on 
the  streets.  The  first  movement  has  always 
stimulated  home  and  school  reform  and  the  de- 
mand for  more  playgrounds. 

During  the  last  few  decades,  the  home  has 
partly  surrendered  its  old-time  supremacy  as 
character  builder  not  merely  to  the  school,  its 
public  competitor,  but  to  the  street,  its  most 
formidable  foe.  Home  reform  therefore  ac- 
quires new  meaning  and  urgency.  It  means 
that  homes  should  be  so  improved  as  to  regain 
the  lost  ground  and  turn  defeats  into  victories. 
We  shall  never  take  the  children  off  the  streets 
unless  we  first  build  our  homes  for  children 
rather  than  for  profit. 

Model  housing  legislation  has  too  frequently 
been  advocated  merely  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  poor  and  the  working  class.  The  legisla- 
tion contemplated  suggests  that  these  can,  and 
must,  get  along  without  the  comforts,  not  to 
say  the  luxuries,  which  the  middle  class  enjoys 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     229 

simply  because  it  can  afford  them.  Housing 
legislation  is  therefore  delayed  and  defeated 
not  only  on  the  ground  of  expediency  and 
economy,  but  fundamentally  because  of  an  un- 
expressed belief  that,  after  all,  the  tenement  of 
today  is  "good  enough"  for  the  poor  and  for 
wage-earners. 

We  are  now  beginning  to  see  that  for  many 
reasons  it  is  clearly  not  good  enough  for  the 
children,  the  wards  of  the  State.  Had  we 
originally  approached  housing  legislation  from 
the  standpoint  of  these  children  who  have  suf- 
fered most,  greater  victories  than  air  shafts 
and  fire  escapes  might  have  been  recorded  by 
this  time. 

In  Boston,  for  example,  half  a  century  of 
fighting  for  model  housing  legislation  has  re- 
sulted in  the  law  of  1907  creating  "in-takes," 
air  shafts  and  more  alleys  than  before, — stingy 
legislative  devices  for  doling  out  light  and  air, 
and  useless  for  any  other  purpose.  Alleys  are 
frequently  no  wider  than  air  shafts,  though 
somewhat  longer.  They  might  be  defined  as 


230  STREET-LAND 

air  shafts  without  privacy.  Back  alleys,  like 
Hobbes'  State  of  Nature,  are  "solitary,  poor, 
nasty,  brutish  and  short" 

Tenement  children  still  await  a  legislator 
with  sufficient  imagination  and  courage  to  say 
to  the  sinister  forces  of  profit  and  greed : 

"These  children  need  more  than  air  shafts 
and  alleys,  more  than  bare  standing  room. 
They  must  have  room  to  move  around,  to  play, 
to  grow,  to  do  things.  Therefore  you  shall  not 
build  on  every  inch  of  the  lot,  neither  back  to 
back  nor  side  to  side." 

Today  this  practice  is  so  common  that  it  is 
evidently  being  handed  down  from  father  to 
son,  as  shown  by  this  kindergarten  incident. 
Two  little  fellows,  sons  of  tenant  and  landlord, 
were  engaged  in  block-building.  The  little  ten- 
ant insisted  on  a  passageway  from  the  back 
yard  to  the  street.  The  little  landlord  persist- 
ently blocked  it  up. 

"I  know  better,"  he  insisted.  "My  father 
don't  do  it  that  way." 

American  municipalities  will  ultimately  come 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    231 

to  realize  their  unique  opportunity  for  raising 
the  standards  of  home  builders  and,  at  the  same 
time,  safeguarding  their  investments.  Home 
investments  should  be  made  safer  than  stocks 
and  bonds  and  yet  equally  fluid.  Our  cities 
and  States  can  make  them  such  by  the  proper 
use  of  the  vast  funds  in  our  savings  banks, 
which  largely  represent  the  hard-earned  sav- 
ings of  homeless,  landless  wage-earners. 

Reorganizing  the  homes  themselves  may 
bring  quicker  relief  than  any  housing  laws  can 
bring.  It  may  well  be,  as  Charlotte  Perkins 
Oilman  has  argued  for  years,  that  reorganizing 
the  home  will  dispense  with  numerous  adjuncts 
which  literally  crowd  out  children.  Wash-day, 
for  example,  is  certainly  hard  on  children.  But 
need  every  home  do  its  own  washing?  Need 
every  home  have  the  customary  washtubs  and 
sewing-machines  ? 

Socializing  the  home  did  away  with  spin- 
ning-wheels, wood-piles  and  private  wells. 
Socializing  the  home  is  rapidly  dispensing  with 
other  old-time  functions  which  are  better  per- 


STREET-LAND 

formed  by  expert  social  agencies.  The  sick- 
room, for  instance,  is  fast  becoming  an  anom- ' 
aly  because  hospitals  and  dispensaries  care 
for  sick  people  more  effectively.  Though  com- 
mon kitchens,  like  common  laundries,  are  still 
confined  very  largely  to  apartment  houses, 
they  are  equally  possible  in  modern  tenements. 
So  are  common  playrooms.  Dr.  Montessori's 
Children's  Houses  are  the  result  of  a  clear  vis- 
ion of  the  socialized  home  of  tomorrow. 

This  forward  movement  has  its  formidable 
opponents.  Dr.  Montessori  was  opposed  by 
those  who  would  recreate  the  home  by  restor- 
ing to  it  all  its  old-time  characteristics.  The 
two  diametrically  opposed  views, — one  uphold- 
ing the  ideal  of  the  homes  of  the  past  as  a 
model,  the  other  the  socialized  homes  of  the  fu- 
ture,— represent  the  two  horns  of  a  dilemma 
which  keeps  housing  reform  in  suspense.  This 
indecision  is  perhaps  as  much  responsible  for 
the  present  standpat  attitude  as  are  the  com- 
bined forces  of  poverty  and  greed.  It  is  al- 
most hopeless  to  expect  any  forward  movement 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     233 

until  society  thinks  its  way  out  of  this  dilemma. 

In  the  meantime,  children  must  live  and  grow 
strong  and  happy.  They  must  even  be  pre- 
pared to  grapple  with  the  unsolved  problems 
which  they  are  destined  to  inherit  from  us. 
Having  all  but  banished  them  from  the  home, 
we  must  somehow  reinstate  them.  Why  not 
begin  by  converting  the  so-called  parlor  or 
front-room  into  a  playroom?  Nothing  could 
be  more  useless  than  the  parlor  of  today,  gen- 
erally crowded  with  stiff  furniture.  During 
the  week,  it  is  almost  always  locked;  while  the 
children  play  in  the  gutters.  Being  the  largest 
and  best-lighted  room  in  the  house,  the  front- 
room  answers  admirably  the  requirements  for  a 
playroom  or  study  room. 

There  is  no  provision  for  quiet  study  in  the 
average  tenement  home.  The  homes  without  a 
library  are  still  in  the  majority.  If  front- 
rooms  were  more  generally  available,  the  trav- 
eling home  libraries  would  vastly  encourage 
self-education.  It  may  be  that  from  such  sim- 
ple beginnings  springs  the  kind  of  wholesome 


234  STREET-LAND 

family  life  so  characteristic  of  the  German 
homes  where  education  is  still  the  controlling 
social  ideal. 

The  tenement  home  is  never  so  dreary  as 
when  it  is  deserted  by  both  children  and  par- 
ents. The  children  are  on  the  street.  The 
fathers  are  away  at  work;  and,  all  too  fre- 
quently, the  mothers  also.  The  family  is  thus 
breaking  up  before  our  very  eyes.  If  fathers 
and  mothers  had  more  time  at  home,  there 
would  be  fewer  children  on  the  streets  and 
fewer  problems  to  deal  with. 

One  of  the  surest  ways  of  taking  large 
groups  of  children  off  the  streets  is  to  restore 
their  mothers  to  their  homes.  The  move- 
ment for  widows'  pensions  is  due  to  a  grow- 
ing conviction  that  the  children  of  a  wage- 
earning  widow,  who  are  either  locked  up  in  the 
house  or  locked  out  on  the  street,  may  event- 
ually cost  the  State  more  than  a  pension.  But 
what  of  a  working  mother  who  is  not  a  widow? 
Is  she  better  able  to  look  after  the  children 
while  out  washing  or  scrubbing?  Is  a  drunken 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    235 

husband  who  shifts  the  burden  of  support  on 
his  wife  any  more  useful  to  the  home  than  a 
dead  husband?  State  aid  for  such  mothers  is 
gaining  ground  in  different  States  because,  as 
one  judge  put  it,  "If  poverty  compels  them  to 
leave  the  home,  the  obvious  remedy  is  to  re- 
move poverty  itself." 

The  eight-hour  day  has  too  long  been  fought 
on  grounds  of  constitutionality  instead  of  hu- 
manity. Wage-earning  fathers  and  mothers 
both  need  an  eight-hour  day,  not  so  much  be- 
cause they  are  wage-earners  as  because  they 
are  fathers  and  mothers,  having  duties  toward 
their  children  which  are  of  vital  concern  to  the 
State.  The  constitutional  right  to  work  as 
long  as  one  pleases  is  affected  by  duties 
which  may  be  paramount.  All  working 
mothers  should  be  put  on  an  eight  or  seven- 
hour  day.  A  husband  who  is  regularly  sent  up 
to  Deer  Island  for  a  "vacation"  should  instead 
be  made  to  work.  His  earnings  should  be 
given  to  his  wife  that  she  may  remain  at  home 
to  look  after  the  children. 


236  STREET-LAND 

These  suggestions  by  no  means  exhaust  the 
devices  for  taking  children  off  the  streets. 
The  restoration  of  the  back  yard  is  as  urgent  as 
the  conversion  of  the  parlor  into  a  playroom. 
We  must  learn  to  place  the  needs  of  children 
above  the  needs  of  garbage,  to  which  the  back 
yard  is  now  devoted. 

The  old-time  house-yards  have  disappeared 
from  our  cities,  though  children  were  never 
more  in  need  of  them  than  they  are  today. 
The  space  between  the  back  walls  of  two  tene- 
ments, now  called  a  yard,  is  practically  no  more 
valuable  for  play  than  the  air  shafts  which  the 
law  requires  for  light  and  air.  Suburban  de- 
velopment has  not  improved  upon  the  back  yard 
of  the  tenement  zones,  but  tends  rather  to 
reproduce  it.  Everywhere  the  mushroom 
growth  of  three-deckers  goes  on  unchecked. 
We  are  thus  foredooming  suburbs  and  towns 
before  they  become  annexed  or  citified. 

New  York's  1913  Housing  Code  for  cities  of 
the  second  class  promises  to  check  the  spread 
of  the  three-decker.  The  Code  sets  up  higher 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    237 

standards  in  housing  construction  than  have 
hitherto  prevailed.  It  applies  to  single  dwell- 
ings as  well  as  tenements.  Like  many  other 
codes,  it  requires  a  minimum  of  sanitation, 
light,  air,  privacy  and  safety  from  fire,  but  its 
minimum  is  greater  than  that  of  any  previous 
code.  It  specifically  provides  against  the  con- 
struction of  flimsy  dwellings.  It  requires  that 
every  room  open  to  the  outer  air.  Adequate 
open  spaces,  rear  and  side  yards  and  courts  are 
made  mandatory.  Buildings  of  this  new  type 
will  greatly  reduce  street  problems. 

Ample  play  space,  the  crying  need  of  Street- 
Land,  is  far  from  being  provided  for  even  by 
model  housing  laws.  In  all  cities,  whether  first 
or  second-class, — that  is  in  the  largest  and 
worst  cities  and  in  those  tending  to  imitate 
them — much  can  be  done  for  the  children  by 
the  proper  use  of  yards  and  roofs. 

Back  yards  have  great  possibilities.  If,  for 
instance,  the  back  yards  of  all  tenements  in  a 
block  were  joined,  the  open  space  thus  created 
would  make  a  central  court  which  would  not 


238  STREET-LAND 

only  solve  the  rear-lot  problem,  but  would  be- 
come a  veritable  oasis  in  the  wilderness  of  our 
torrid  tenements.  This  kind  of  central  court 
was  worked  out  by  the  Association  for  Good 
Building  of  Rome  in  a  most  hopeless  tenement 
region  known  as  San  Lorenzo.  Indeed,  this 
very  court  gave  rise  to  the  Children's  Houses 
now  attracting  world-wide  attention. 

Think  what  it  would  mean  to  the  mothers  of 
a  tenement  to  be  able,  through  the  kitchen  win- 
dows, to  watch  their  children  at  play  in  such 
a  court,  protected  against  street  hazards,  phys- 
ical and  moral  alike.  Such  courts  should  ulti- 
mately have  Children's  Houses,  too.  These 
Houses  should  be  under  the  expert  guidance  of 
kindergartners  who  would  eventually  trans- 
form the  courts  into  kindergartens  of  real 
beauty.  Such  kindergartens  would  restore  to 
both  children  and  grown-ups  the  mutual  com- 
panionship which  alone  makes  life  worth  liv- 
ing. 

Roof  gardens  are  similarly  possible.  In  the 
justly-called  "lung  blocks,"  where  the  tenements 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    239 

are  jammed  in,  side  to  side,  often  sharing  a 
party  wall,  a  roof  garden  could  run  from  end 
to  end.  The  continuous  roof  garden  and  cen- 
tral court  would  restore  to  the  children  nearly 
every  inch  of  space  the  tenement  took  from 
them.  A  continuous  roof  would  also  be  a 
blessing  in  case  of  fire.  Incidentally,  it  would 
improve  the  sky  line.  Even  where  tenements 
stand  apart,  the  roofs  could  be  connected  by 
means  of  bridges. 

Individual  roofs  could  easily  be  turned  into 
roof  gardens  and  ideal  children's  playgrounds. 
Many  schools  and  social  settlements  have  dem- 
onstrated this  for  years.  The  Civic  Service 
House  roof  garden  has  just  completed  its  tenth 
year.  Besides  the  flowers  we  grow  ourselves, 
we  have  plants  and  flowers  kindly  furnished  by 
the  Park  Department.  These  give  a  real  gar- 
den effect.  A  canvas  awning  agreeably  tem- 
pers the  heat.  Classes  and  clubs  meet  there 
every  night,  and  the  House  is  as  well  attended 
in  the  summer  as  in  the  winter.  Several 
houses  in  the  neighborhood  are  now  using  their 


240  STREET-LAND 

roofs  for  resting  and  sleeping.  Some  have 
splendid  flower  exhibits  every  summer. 

Tenement-house  roofs  would  be  more  com- 
monly used  today  if  they  were  safe  and  suit- 
able, and  if  landlords  and  janitors  did  not  in- 
terfere. During  the  war,  an  immigrant  father 
bought  his  boy  a  toy  gun  and  took  him  up  on 
the  roof  to  teach  him  how  to  shoot.  The  jani- 
tor discovered  them  and  promptly  ordered  them 
back  to  the  street. 

"This  ain't  no  shootin'  gallery,"  he  declared. 
"What's  the  street  for,  anyway?" 

Improved  schools,  like  improved  homes,  will 
materially  help  to  keep  children  off  the  streets. 
The  latest  schools  have  roof  gardens,  fresh- 
air  rooms  and  large  yards  used  as  playgrounds 
during  the  summer ;  also  gymnasiums  and  baths 
open  all  the  year  round.  Some  have  gardens 
which  are  cultivated  by  the  children  even  dur- 
ing vacation.  Open-air  schools  for  anaemic 
children  and  summer  review  schools  for  back- 
ward children  are  on  the  increase.  Both  types 
have  had  a  tremendous  success.  Many  schools 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     241 

have  children's  libraries  and  study  rooms.  An 
increasingly  large  number  even  have  moving 
pictures. 

Some  model  schools  are  going  still  further 
in  their  effort  to  meet  every  legitimate  neigh- 
borhood need.  Their  center  of  interest  is  no 
longer  the  school  building  but  the  neighbor- 
hood. They  aim  to  encourage,  and  frequently 
to  direct,  the  activities  of  the  children  outside 
the  schoolroom.  Presently  we  shall  learn  to 
measure  the  influence  of  the  school  by  what 
happens  outside.  The  model  school  is  coming 
to  be  a  clearing-house  for  neighborhood  inter- 
ests and  activities. 

Schools  are  fast  becoming  social  centers. 
They  are  used  evenings  and  Sundays  by  grown- 
ups as  well  as  children.  As  the  kindergartens 
effectively  take  off  the  streets  in  the  morning 
thousands  of  little  children  under  compulsory 
school  age,  so  social  centers  are  now  taking  off 
the  streets  at  night  the  youth  above  the  com- 
pulsory age.  Four  hundred  social  centers  have 
been  opened  in  the  United  States  within  a  dec- 


242  STREET-LAND 

ade,  with  a  phenomenal  attendance  and  a  multi- 
tude of  activities. 

There  are  over  four  hundred  social  settle- 
ments in  this  country,  forerunners  of  the  social 
centers.  In  many  instances,  settlements,  too, 
were  originally  inspired  by  the  motive  of  tak- 
ing children  off  the  streets  and  providing  for 
them  a  safer  and  saner  setting.  The  social 
centers  tend  gradually  to  absorb  the  regularly- 
organized  activities  of  the  social  settlements. 
The  settlements  are  always  pioneering  in  newer 
fields  and  experimenting  with  types  of  service 
which  need  demonstration  and  the  backing  of 
enlightened  public  opinion.  They  have  always 
experimented  with  many  forms  of  caring  for 
street  children,  of  interesting  them,  of  safe- 
guarding them. 

The  street-corner  gang,  for  example,  has 
been  its  constant  challenge.  It  is  a  function 
of  the  settlement  to  work  out  newer  methods 
of  wholesomely  engaging  the  interests  and 
activities  of  these  gangs.  Its  methods  are 
freely  communicated  to  the  social  centers. 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    243 

Having  learned  the  secret  of  organizing  gangs 
into  clubs  best  suited  to  the  needs  of  their  mem- 
bers, the  center  cheerfully  opens  its  doors  and 
bids  them  enter. 

Most  moving-picture  houses  are  not  nearly 
so  particular  about  whom  to  admit  as  social 
centers  and  settlements.  That  is  one  reason 
why  the  movies  attract  millions  while  the  others 
attract  hundreds.  In  this  country,  about  eight 
million  people  attend  moving-picture  shows 
daily.  We  are  told  that  at  least  a  tenth  of  the 
population  of  Greater  New  York  goes  every 
day.  No  recreation  is  so  popular,  not  even 
baseball.  Street  children,  when  they  are  not 
at  the  movies,  are  often  similarly  engaged  on 
the  curbstones, — imitating  in  word  and  deed 
the  heroes  and  heroines  they  have  seen  on  the 
screen. 

The  movies  are  more  in  keeping  with  tHe 
spirit  of  the  street  than  the  sedate  schools. 
Therefore  they  easily  compete  with  the  schools 
in  spite  of  the  admission  fee.  Were  the  movies 
always  educational,  they  would  simply  be  sup- 


244  STREET-LAND 

plementing  the  work  of  the  schools.  There  is 
certainly  much  in  them  which  schools  will 
finally  have  to  incorporate.  The  influence  of 
the  movies  can  no  more  be  ignored  than  that 
of  the  street. 

The  immediate  problem  of  the  ideal  school  is 
therefore  this:  How  to  relate  itself  to  the 
overwhelming  influences  affecting  children  and 
to  make  them  serve  the  social  purpose. 

The  next  twenty-five  years  will  witness  the 
reorganizing  and  socializing  of  child  life  in 
Street-Land  in  ways  undreamed  of  in  the  whole 
history  of  education.  Nothing  will  be  done  as 
it  is  today.  We  shall,  in  the  first  place,  insist 
on  the  whole-life  plan  of  education.  True  edu- 
cation is  a  continuous  process.  Every  waking 
moment  of  the  child's  life  should  be  educa- 
tional. We  shall  also  insist  on  the  full-day 
schooling  of  children  up  to  and  including  the 
crucial  years  of  adolescence.  The  part-time 
schools  still  existing  in  the  city  of  New  York 
are  frequently  criticized.  What  about  the 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    245 

part-time  schooling  (five  hours  out  of  twenty- 
four  !)  prevalent  all  over  the  country? 

Professor  Dewey,  in  his  profound  volume  on 
the  "School  and  Society,"  worked  out  a  sym- 
bolic plan  of  the  future  school.  The  plan  calls 
for  a  school  building  placed  in  the  center  of  a 
garden.  At  one  side  of  the  building  are  the 
homes.  Footpaths  connect  homes  and  school, 
suggesting  the  "free  interplay  of  influences, 
materials  and  ideas  between  the  home  life  and 
that  of  the  school."  At  another  side  of  the 
school  building,  walks  lead  to  garden,  park  and 
country,  suggesting  the  relation  of  the  schools 
to  "natural  environment,  the  great  field  of 
geography  in  the  widest  sense."  From  the  gar- 
den, Professor  Dewey  suggests,  the  children 
should  be  "led  on  to  the  surrounding  parks  and 
fields,  and  then  into  the  wider  country  with  all 
its  facts  and  forces."  On  the  third  side  of  this 
ideal  school  building,  doors  open  out  to  the 
world  of  business,  suggesting  the  necessity  for 
"free  play  between  the  school  and  the  needs 


246  STREET-LAND 

and  forces  of  industry."  On  the  fourth  side  is 
the  "university  proper,  with  its  various  phases, 
its  laboratories,  its  resources  in  the  way  of  li- 
braries, museums  and  professional  schools." 

This  plan  indirectly  condemns  streets  and  al- 
leys, the  movies,  and  the  many  sordid  influ- 
ences which  play  havoc  with  our  present 
scheme  of  education.  If  this  plan  could  be  re- 
vised in  the  same  broad  spirit  of  idealism,  yet 
adapted  to  meet  the  immediate  needs  of  child- 
hood in  our  huge  American  cities,  we  should 
have  a  working  model  of  the  ideal  school  of  the 
future.  But  this  working  model  would  have  to 
take  into  account  the  intense  activities  of  street 
children  which,  if  properly  directed,  might 
count  materially  in  organic  education, — the 
only  education  worth  having. 

The  emphasis  on  organic  education  by  Mrs. 
Marietta  L.  Johnson  in  her  new  non-equipment 
school  at  Fairhope,  Alabama,  is  reassuring. 
Her  school  ought  to  teach  the  lesson  that  or- 
ganic education  under  supervision  can  be  based 
quite  as  much  on  street  as  on  farm  activities. 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    247 

The  persecuted  street  ball-player  is  often  but 
the  league  pitcher  in  the  making.  To  see  the 
educational  value  of  this  activity,  all  that  is  nec- 
essary, as  has  been  suggested,  is  to  translate  it 
into  educational  terms.  Ball-pitching,  or  even 
stone-throwing,  is  but  another  name  for  motor 
and  sense  coordination.  Run  through  the 
whole  gamut  of  street  activities  and  you  will 
find  that  nearly  all  of  them,  under  the  direction 
of  a  Mrs.  Johnson  or  a  Dr.  Montessori  and  inter- 
preted in  educational  terms,  can  be  made  to  con- 
tribute to  the  organic  development  of  children. 
It  is  not  old-fashioned  grammar  schools,  but 
modern  playgrounds,  which  are  paving  the  way 
for  organic  education.  The  playgrounds  or- 
ganize all  that  is  good  in  street  activities. 
They  also  combat  much  that  is  evil.  Play- 
grounds are  the  first  device  of  modern  cities  for 
taking  children  off  the  streets  and  yet  keeping 
them  out  of  doors.  An  ideal  playground  suc- 
cessfully counteracts  the  effects  of  bad  home 
and  street  alike.  These  achievements  were  no 
easy  victory. 


248  STREET-LAND 

The  street  habit  itself  is  not  nearly  so  injur- 
ious, physically  at  least,  as  the  indoor  habit 
prevalent  during  certain  seasons  of  the  year. 
How  to  reach  the  children  who  need  outdoor 
life  most  is  still  an  issue;  but  the  diversified 
playground,  with  its  sand  boxes,  its  garden 
patches  and  its  swings,  is  gradually  winning  all 
classes. 

An  immigrant  child  sees  in  the  grounds 
fringed  with  grass  and  shrubs  his  favorite  park, 
the  sight  of  which  often  calls  forth  the  excla- 
mation: "This  is  just  like  the  old  country!" 
The  least  touch  of  green  brings  sweet  mem- 
ories of  hayfields  and  verdant  pastures — once 
his  playground.  While  he  is  a  stranger  to  the 
tenement,  he  is  no  stranger  to  a  blade  of  grass. 
Although  American  baseball  seems  more  diffi- 
cult the  longer  you  look  at  it ;  yet,  given  the  op- 
portunity, an  immigrant  boy  soon  learns  to  play 
it, — even  in  Yiddish  if  need  be. 

The  relation  between  playgrounds  and  street- 
corner  loafing  is  as  intimate  as  between  child 
labor  and  delinquency,  or  between  unemploy- 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    249 

ment  and  misemployment.  Therefore,  in  these 
days  of  recurrent  emphasis  on  vocational  guid- 
ance, it  is  important  to  note  the  value  of  nat- 
ural guidance,  through  play,  to  the  discovery 
of  one's  real  strength  in  a  given  occupation. 
Vocational  counselors  would  do  well  to  advise 
with  playground  supervisors  fully  as  much  as 
with  school  teachers  in  order  to  discover  what 
life  work  children  are  best  suited  for. 

The  useful  playground  also  enjoys  the  priv- 
ilege of  giving  the  kind  of  moral  guidance 
which  is  needed  to  counteract  rampant  street 
vices.  The  important  first  step  in  this  direc- 
tion, following  the  precedent  of  the  school,  is 
to  keep  saloons,  pool  rooms  and  all  other  vicious 
influences  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  play- 
ground. Here  is  an  opportunity  for  setting  up 
standards  of  decency  which  the  streets  so  eas- 
ily confound  and  for  which  we  so  often  blame 
the  children. 

Certain  immediate  improvements  are  neces- 
sary to  make  our  playgrounds  what  they  ought 
to  be.  Some  are  playgrounds  in  name  only. 


250  STREET-LAND 

Think  of  playgrounds  with  brick  and  concrete 
pavements.  Such  beds  are  hot  and  hard,  and 
unfit  for  summer  play.  The  best  grounds  are 
made  of  gravel  or  planted  with  grass.  Some 
cities  commonly  use  their  parks  for  play  under 
direction.  Other  cities  permit  them  to  stand 
spick  and  span  in  their  adornments  of  grass 
and  shrubs  and  flowers,  while  the  people  for 
whom  they  are  intended  are  warned  to  "keep 
off  the  grass"  and  the  little  children  are  forced 
to  play  on  unattractive  lots  and  in  dusty  alleys. 

It  would  add  greatly  to  the  efficiency  of  sum- 
mer playgrounds  if  lunches  were  served  to  the 
children,  many  of  whom  have  little  to  eat  from 
the  hour  they  come,  in  the  morning  to  the  time 
they  leave,  in  the  afternoon.  Many  a  play- 
ground instructor  has  asserted  that  some  chil- 
dren go  hungry  all  day.  Teachers  at  a  con- 
ference testified  that  when  children  were  asked 
why  they  did  not  go  home  to  eat,  they  often 
said  there  was  nothing  there  for  them,  or,  more 
frequently,  that  nobody  was  at  home. 

The  real  trouble  with  our  playgrounds  is  that 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    251 

there  are  not  enough  of  them.  A  study  of 
child  welfare  in  the  leading  cities  and  towns  of 
Massachusetts,  made  by  the  Federation  of 
Women's  Clubs,  brought  out  the  fact  that  in 
most  cities  where  there  are  ordinances  against 
play  on  the  street  or  sidewalk  the  children  who 
play  there  are  a  mile  or  more  away  from  a  play- 
ground. During  the  recreation  survey  made 
in  the  city  of  Providence,  two  thousand  and 
seventy  children  were  found  on  the  streets  after 
school  hours.  Of  these,  thirty-two  per  cent, 
were  playing  and  fifty-four  per  cent,  were  idle. 
The  people  of  the  Greenwich  Village  section  of 
New  York,  under  the  brilliant  leadership  of 
Mrs.  V.  G.  Simkhovitch,  are  figuring  out  how 
to  squeeze  twenty-four  thousand  children  onto 
sixteen  thousand  square  feet  of  playground. 

Tolstoi  says  somewhere  that  Russia's  great- 
est needs  are  "schools,  schools  and  schools." 
Congested  America's  greatest  needs  are  play- 
grounds, playgrounds  and  playgrounds.  More 
play  space  is  the  cry  of  every  city.  The  play- 
grounds we  have  are  often  far  away  from 


252  STREET-LAND 

the  children  who  need  them.  Playground 
teachers  approve  of  bringing  play  spaces  nearer 
the  children.  They  say  that  some  children 
"haven't  enough  energy  to  leave  their  door- 
steps. They  sit  on  the  curbing  all  day  long 
with  their  babies." 

"Anybody  can  start  a  playground"  is  the 
new  slogan  of  the  Playground  and  Recreation 
Association  of  America.  Get  the  mothers  in- 
terested, and  they  will  get  the  land  and  donate 
the  equipment.  A  dozen  small  playgrounds 
are  better  than  one  large  one  and  are  easier  to 
establish.  They  should  be  near  schools,  under 
supervision,  and  open  all  the  year  round. 

One  of  the  cheapest  and  quickest  ways  of  in- 
creasing the  amount  of  play  space  is  to  close 
certain  side  streets  to  through  traffic  and  set 
them  aside  for  play  under  supervision.  There 
is  precedent  in  other  fields  for  such  trafficless 
streets  for  children.  Commercial  zones  have 
frequently  been  outlined  for  various  purposes ; 
for  example,  for  peddlers  during  certain  hours. 
Safety  islands,  or  guarded  spaces  and  squares, 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    253 

encouraged  by  European  examples,  are  com- 
mon in  New  York.  Heavy  teaming  has  been 
excluded  for  years  from  avenues  bearing  the 
legend — "For  Pleasure  Driving  Only/'  Resi- 
dential streets  will,  it  is  hoped,  bear  similar 
legends— "For  Play  Only"  or  "Children's 
Playground.  Do  not  enter." 

The  suggestion  of  the  creation  of  "streets 
for  children  only"  was  enthusiastically  adopted 
by  the  First  City  and  Town  Planning  Confer- 
ence of  Massachusetts  as  a  basic  plank  in  their 
platform;  and  the  different  representatives 
pledged  themselves  to  endeavor  to  carry  the 
resolution  into  effect. 

This  method  of  setting  aside  residential 
streets  for  children's  play  under  supervision  is 
being  tried  by  the  Parks  and  Playgrounds  As- 
sociations of  Chicago,  Baltimore  and  New 
York.  An  editorial  in  the  Outlook  gives  the 
following  account  of  the  most  promising  New 
York  experiment : 

"  'If  you  can't  get  what  you  want,  make  the 
best  of  what  you  have,'  seems  to  be  the  sensible 


254  STREET-LAND 

motto  of  the  Parks  and  Playgrounds  Associa- 
tion of  New  York  City.  Unable  to  get  a  suffi- 
cient number  of  playgrounds  to  accommodate 
all  the  youngsters  of  the  metropolis,  the  Associ- 
ation, in  cooperation  with  the  Police  Depart- 
ment, has  made  temporary  playgrounds  out  of 
a  number  of  streets  in  the  city.  It  is  nothing 
new  for  children  to  play  in  crowded  city  streets, 
but  it  is  quite  novel  for  boys  and  girls  to  be 
turned  loose  in  streets  from  which  all  traffic  has 
been  diverted,  and  to  be  able  to  play  ball  and 
hop-scotch  without  fear  of  horses'  hoofs  and 
the  wheels  of  auto  trucks.  That  is  the  privi- 
lege that  some  of  the  children  of  New  York 
have  now,  thanks  to  the  Parks  and  Play- 
grounds Association  and  the  Police  Commis- 
sioner, whose  heart  is  in  the  right  place. 

"The  late  Mayor  Gaynor  once  said:  'If  I 
had  my  way,  I  would  close  up  every  street  and 
turn  it  into  a  playground  for  the  boys  and 
girls/  If  he  were  alive  today,  he  would  be 
pleased  to  see  that  a  start  has  been  made  in  the 
right  direction.  Parts  of  seven  Manhattan 
streets  are  now  set  aside  for  children :  at  three 
o'clock  every  afternoon  a  policeman  appears 
and  ropes  off  the  sacred  area,  into  which  no 
vehicles  of  any  sort  may  come  until  the  ropes 
are  removed  at  six  o'clock  and  traffic  resumed. 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     255 

"To  each  'play  street/  one  or  more  instruc- 
tors have  been  assigned  who  preside  over  the 
three-hour  sessions  of  handball,  dancing  and 
other  approved  pastimes  of  childhood.  From 
three  to  six  o'clock  six  hundred  children  crowd 
into  each  of  these  recreation  blocks  every  after- 
noon, and  so  popular  and  successful  has  this 
experiment  in  applied  sociology  proved  that  it 
is  planned  to  open  other  streets  soon.  The 
streets  chosen  for  play  are  in  crowded  residen- 
tial districts,  and  are  not,  of  course,  streets 
where  much  traffic  is  demanded  by  business  in- 
terests. They  are,  in  short,  streets  that  might 
well  be  permanently  consecrated  to  the  uses  of 
childhood.  Mayor  Gaynor  was  right;  the 
modern  city  is  conducted  with  entirely  too  much 
regard  for  the  uses  of  haggling  age  and  en- 
tirely too  little  for  the  interests  of  rollicking 
youth/' 

Some  may  object  to  this  plan  of  using  a  street 
for  play  on  the  ground  that  it  would  make  the 
neighborhood  toox  noisy.  A  Washington  hos- 
pital petitioned  that  the  adjoining  vacant  lot 
be  turned  into  a  playground  because  it  realized 
that  play  under  supervision  was  certain  to 
be  less  noisy  than  undirected  street  play,  Hos- 


256  STREET-LAND 

pitals  and  churches  have  generally  been  ac- 
tive in  securing  quiet  zones  surrounding  their 
property;  thereby  establishing  a  precedent  and 
principle  which  may  well  be  applied  to  other 
neighborhoods.  A  quiet  zone  is  secured  by  the 
total  or  partial  exclusion  of  traffic  and  by 
"deadening  the  noise  through  the  use  of  special 
pavements." 

The  ideal  play  street,  in  order  to  best  serve 
the  interests  of  children,  should  be  of  asphalt 
and  without  sidewalks.  There  ought  to  be 
benches  for  those  who  wish  to  rest,  especially 
for  little  mothers  and  their  babies.  For  small 
children  there  should  be  sand  boxes,  seat- 
swings,  teeter-boards  and  play  wagons.  Por- 
tions of  such  a  street  might  systematically  be 
set  apart  at  different  times  of  the  day  for  dif- 
ferent groups  of  older  boys  and  girls, — for 
roller-skating,  kite-flying,  volley-ball  and  other 
such  games. 

The  exclusion  of  traffic  would  vastly  encour- 
age the  playing  of  organized  games.  Peggy, 
teacher,  hide-and-go-seek,  marbles,  tag,  run- 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    257 

my-good-sheep-run  and  bow-wow  are  now 
played  with  more  or  less  success.  But  some  of 
the  most  exciting  games, — among  them  relievo, 
prisoners'  base,  handball  and  hockey, — cannot 
be  played  on  the  street  because  of  continuous 
traffic.  What  children  need  is  unimpeded  play 
space  and  an  organizer  or  supervisor. 

The  street  is  like  an  automobile, — very  serv- 
iceable and  enjoyable  with  a  skilled  chauffeur  at 
the  wheel,  but  very  destructive  if  allowed  to 
run  wild.  The  street,  therefore,  needs  a  su- 
pervisor, a  person  to  look  after  it,  just  as  an 
automobile  needs  a  chauffeur. 

We  have  already  seen  what  a  supervisor  of 
licensed  minors  can  do  for  children  trading  in 
the  streets.  Such  a  supervisor  could  do  even 
more  for  children  playing  in  the  streets.  His 
opportunities  to  organize  and  rationalize  child 
life  in  Street-Land  are  no  less  extraordinary 
than  those  which  challenged  Pestalozzi,  Mann 
and  Montessori  in  the  field  of  education.  His 
technique  would  be  a  matter  of  daily  unfolding, 
but  it  would  presently  become  as  unique  as  that 


258  STREET-LAND 

of  the  probation  officer,  school  visitor,  friendly 
visitor  and  boys'  club  director.  He  would 
need,  to  a  large  degree,  the  qualities  of  the 
Montessori  "directress." 

The  Street  Supervisor  should  so  organize 
the  play  of  the  children  in  his  charge  that  they 
may  have  the  right  ideas  about  play  when  left 
to  themselves.  His  methods  should  closely 
resemble  those  of  the  playground  director. 
His  success  would  come  chiefly  from  his  abil- 
ity to  promote  free  play,  for  which  the  street 
is  best  adapted. 

While  he  will  eventually  reform  street  con- 
ditions, he  must,  as  a  practical  man,  be  pre- 
pared in  the  beginning  to  face  conditions  as  he 
finds  them.  Groups  of  children  will  be  form- 
ing and  breaking  up  before  his  very  eyes.  His 
ability  to  hold  a  group  will  not  depend  on  the 
usual  walls  and  boundaries  of  the  playground, 
but  on  an  innate  interest  in  the  members  of 
the  group  and  its  activities.  His  good  sense 
alone  will  foresee  and  forestall  the  obstacles  in 
his  path.  His  personality  will  be  his  best 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    259 

equipment.  Indeed  he  will  have  no  other 
to  start  with. 

Lack  of  equipment  is  no  longer  considered  a 
handicap,  but  an  asset.  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Associations  all  over  the  country  are 
engaging  secretaries  to  carry  on  non-equip- 
ment work  with  boys.  The  Newark  secretary 
writes  that  his  main  object  is  to  further  recre- 
ative opportunities  by  combining  and  utilizing 
more  efficiently  all  existing  agencies  and,  espe- 
cially, to  direct  street  and  vacant-lot  play. 
The  promising  educational  experiments  in 
Gary,  Indiana,  now  attracting  national  atten- 
tion are  the  direct  result  of  the  non-equipment 
which  William  A.  Wirt  faced  when  he  was 
called  to  that  city  as  Superintendent  of  Schools. 
He  did  not  find  a  single  school  to  superintend. 
What  he  did  is  what  the  Street  Supervisor 
will  have  to  do;  namely,  utilize  and  work  with 
the  things  at  hand. 

The  Supervisor  must  have  a  strong  social 
sense.  He  must  be  able  to  mix  well,  not  only 
with  the  children,  but  also  with  the  grown-ups. 


2<5o  STREET-LAND 

He  must  therefore  know  his  community.  One 
of  the  main  reasons  why  most  school  teachers  in 
congested  neighborhoods  are  nut  more  effective 
with  the  pupils  is  that  they  do  not  live  there. 
They  do  not  really  know  the  children  outside 
the  schoolroom.  The  Street  Supervisor  should 
certainly  begin  by  living  in  the  neighborhood 
where  he  works.  The  social  settlement  idea  is 
that  the  best  neighbor  is  the  most  successful 
settler.  The  most  successful  playground  di- 
rector is  the  man  who  lives  on  the  playground. 

This  will  help  the  Supervisor  in  working 
with  his  neighbors.  They  will  be  glad  to  help 
him  once  they  know  that  he  is  really  working  in 
the  interests  of  their  children.  Every  social 
worker  knows  that  children  are  the  key  to  fam- 
ily affection  and  neighborly  love.  The  chil- 
dren's sincere  friend  need  never  worry.  He 
will  get  much  support  from  the  neighborhood, 
whose  resources  far  outrival  those  of  the  best- 
equipped  playground. 

There  are  many  obvious  reasons  for  the  need 
of  street  supervision.  There  are  in  this  coun- 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    261 

try  many  millions  of  school  children  under 
fourteen  who-  especially  need  street  guidance. 
The  four  million  children  from  fifteen  to  nine- 
teen years  of  age,  whose  leisure  hours  are  spent 
on  the  streets,  are  practically  without  super- 
vision of  any  kind.  We  have  already  seen  how 
many  bad  habits  are  contracted  on  the  streets. 
If  street  life  were  supervised,  these  bad  habits 
would  be  checked  and  good  habits  encouraged. 
Opportunities  for  cooperation,  fellowship,  loy- 
alty and  honesty  are  greater  on  the  streets, 
where  life  flows  freely,  than  in  school  or  at 
home.  By  encouraging  children  in  these  di- 
rections, the  Street  Supervisor  will  have  the 
unique  civic  opportunity  of  laying  the  very 
foundations  of  citizenship. 

How  is  the  Supervisor  going  to  look  after 
the  children  on  the  streets  ? 

Let  him  first  consult  the  children.  We  do 
not  often  do  that  and  therefore  we  accomplish 
little.  Children  do  not  like  our  ways  and 
work  against  us.  We  generally  want  them  to 
be  like  ourselves.  They  want  us  to  be  like 


262  STREET-LAND 

themselves.  We  win  out  in  the  end,  but  they 
never  forgive  us.  Some  of  them  hate  us  ever 
afterward.  What  boy  has  ever  truly  forgiven 
a  police  officer  for  taking  him  to  court  or  a  tru- 
ant officer  for  taking  him  away  to  the  reform 
school? 

But  how  they  love  us  when  we  work  with 
them,  not  against  them ;  when  we  feel  for  them, 
play  with  them !  How  wildly  they  cheer  their 
umpire,  their  captain,  their  club  leader,  their 
chairman!  Like  police  and  truant  officers, 
these  people  also  look  after  them;  but  with 
what  different  results!  Children  are  glad 
to  be  looked  after  in  a  friendly  way ;  glad  to  be 
taught  how  to  swim  without  drowning,  how  to 
jump  without  falling,  how  to  play  ball  without 
breaking  windows.  Children  would  welcome  a 
street  friend,  one  who  would  watch  over  them 
like  a  mother  or  a  big  brother,  who  would  see 
that  they  did  not  get  run  over,  that  they  were 
not  bullied  or  cheated  or  driven  to  the  wall. 

Let  us  give  street  children  such  a  friend. 
We  might  name  him  Street  Supervisor.  The 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     263 

children  will  probably  call  him  captain,  umpire, 
or  Uncle  George,  depending  on  the  grace  of 
God  in  him. 

He  could  organize  the  children  into  effective 
street-cleaning  brigades  as  Colonel  Waring  did 
in  New  York.  This  experiment  in  self-gov- 
ernment still  stands  out  as  the  most  brilliant 
ever  tried  in  Street-Land.  The  older  boys  and 
girls  would  be  glad  to  cooperate  with  the  Street 
Supervisor,  to  act  as  his  lieutenants  or  seconds 
in  command.  They  love  to  be  useful,  helpful, 
important.  Give  a  boy  a  chance  to  act  the  part 
of  a  man  and  you  have  won  in  him  the  most 
faithful  servant,  the  most  dutiful  slave.  Such 
helpers  would  be  invaluable  in  looking  after  the 
little  ones,  starting  games  with  them,  and  doing 
many  acts  of  kindness  which  only  little  mothers 
and  little  fathers  can  do. 

Parents,  too,  would  be  glad  to  help.  They 
would  doubtless  keep  the  side  streets  cleaner  if 
the  Supervisor  explained  to  them  just  how  they 
could  be  used  as  playgrounds.  Under  his  di- 
rection, or  that  of  an  acknowledged  neighbor- 


\ 


264  STREET-LAND 

hood  leader,  a  "clean-up,  paint-up"  campaign 
could  be  inaugurated  once  or  twice  a  year  with 
the  help  of  the  children.  Together,  parents 
might  decide  on  a  better  system  of  garbage  re- 
moval so  as  to  avoid  the  litter  and  filth  which 
make  the  streets  so  forbidding  on  collection 
days.  They  would  also  wage  campaigns 
against  spitting  on  the  sidewalks. 

Let  the  Supervisor  call  frequent  parents' 
meetings,  preferably  in  the  open,  to  consider 
plans  for  a  fair  or  pageant.  Similar  experi- 
ments have  demonstrated  how  a  side  street  can 
be  turned  into  a  theater,  a  sidewalk  into  a 
stage.  Let  the  children  be  the  players  and 
the  grown-ups  the  audience.  Neighborhoods 
would  be  amazed  at  their  own  transformation. 
Little  pageants  would  become  frequent  inci- 
dents; Oberammergaus  annual  midsummer 
events.  An  appeal  for  scenery  would  yield 
a  crop  of  flower-boxes  on  window-sills,  which 
no  prize  competition  contest  could  surpass. 
What  ribbons  and  clothes  and  fans  would  be 
brought  forth  from  the  hidden  treasures  of  ten- 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME    265 

ement   trunks   and   closets!     And   how   they 
would  dress  the  players ! 

Such  a  street  pageant  was  given  on  the  East 
Side  of  New  York.  It  was  presented  by  the 
members  of  the  Henry  Street  Settlement  to  cel- 
ebrate the  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  found- 
ing of  the  Settlement.  "The  six  episodes  of 
the  pageant  represented  picturesque  social 
gatherings  of  the  peoples  who  had  lived  at  dif- 
ferent times  in  the  neighborhood  of  Henry 
Street, — the  Indians,  the  Dutch,  the  English, 
the  Irish,  the  Scotch,  the  Germans,  the  Italians, 
and  the  Russians.  The  costumes  were  planned 
and  the  incidents  selected  to  recreate  the  at- 
mosphere of  each  epoch."  The  following  is  an 
outline  of  the  pageant : 

EPISODE  L— about  1617 

INDIAN 

The  Manhattas  in  council  gravely  welcome  the  White 
Strangers  with  gifts  of  wampum  and  skins,  receiving 
in  return  bright  colored  trinkets  and  strange  garments 
from  over  the  seas.  They  initiate  the  Traders  into  the 
ceremony  of  the  Peace  Pipe  and  bury  the  hatchet  with 
joyous  songs  and  dances.  The  chief  bids  farewell  to 
the  white  men  and  disappears,  followed  by  his  tribe, 


266  STREET-LAND 

leaving  the  Dutchmen  in  possession  of  their  new  ter- 
ritory. 

I.  Medicine  Song.    2.  Medicine  Dance  Song.     3.  Dance  Song. 
4.  Medicine  Song.     5.  Dance  Song.  6.  Choral. 

EPISODE  II.— about  1675 

DUTCH 
A  STRAWBERRY  PICNIC 

Dutch  vrouws  and  burghers  with  their  large  families 
enjoy  a  Strawberry  Picnic  in  the  days  when  the  fields 
of  Manhattan  Island  were  covered  with  wild  berries. 
They  are  joined  by  the  young  girls  who  come  to  bleach 
their  linen  and  by  the  children  on  their  way  home  from 
school.  In  the  midst  of  the  fun,  the  postie  dashes  by 
on  horseback  on  his  way  to  Boston  carrying  the 
monthly  mail,  "which  was  instituted  for  a  more  speedy 
intelligence  and  dispatch  of  affairs."  He  is  followed 
by  all,  waving  and  singing  to  speed  him  on  his  danger- 
ous journey. 

I.  Dutch  Jigg.       2.  Model  Children  Song.     3.  Linen  Song. 

4.  Song :  "Hannes  Has  New  dumpers." 
5.  Wooden  Shoe  Dance.  6.  Wind  Mill  Dance. 

7.  The  Postie  Song. 

EPISODE  III.— about  1760 

COLONIAL  DAYS 

Early  on  May  morning  the  little  children  come  troop- 
ing from  the  woods  to  hang  their  posies  on  the  door- 
steps so  that  those  they  love  may  be  surrounded  by 
fairies  all  through  the  year.  The  mothers  find  their 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     267 

gifts,  and  as  they  sit  in  the  doorways  with  their  spin- 
ning wheels  and  samplers,  they  sing  to  the  children  a 
ballad  of  long  ago.  A  May  Party  enters;  the  King, 
Queen,  Court,  Chimney  Sweeps,  Dancers,  Milk  Maids 
and  Sailors  merrily  dance  and  play  around  the  May 
Pole. 

I.  Cornish  May  Song. 
2.  Ballad :  Margaret  Who  Lost  Her  Garter. 

3.  Money  Musk.     4.  Greeting.  5.  May  Pole  Dance. 
6.  Minuet.               7.  Sailor's  Hornpipe.        8.  March. 

9.  Milk  Maids'  Dance— "Mary,  Molly  and  I." 

EPISODE  IV.— 1806 

A  glimpse  of  the  children  who,  a  little  more  than  « 
century  ago,  were  taken  by  their  Quaker  parents  to  the 
first  Public  School  in  New  York,  which  was  opened  in 
Henry  Street.  They  play  the  old-fashioned  games 
until  the  school  mistress  rings  the  bell  for  them  to  begin 
the  day's  lessons. 

I.  The  Mulberry  Bush.  2.  London  Bridge. 

EPISODE  V.— about  1860 

On  a  moonlight  spring  evening  in  the  sixties,  girls  in 
hoopskirts,  and  young  men  in  stocks  gather  on  the 
stoops  of  the  houses  and  sing  old  ballads  and  dance 
quaint  polkas  and  quadrilles. 

i.  Silver  Thread?    2.  A  Polka.  3.  Varsouvienne. 

4.  Juanita.  5.  Quadrille.  6.  The  Mocking  Bird. 

EPISODE  VI.— 1893-1913 
A  picture  of  all  the  nationalities  that  have  lived  in 


268  STREET-LAND 

Henry  Street  in  the  last  fifty  years — the  Irish,  the 
Scotch,  the  Germans,  the  Italians,  and  the  Russians. 
They  sing  again  the  songs  and  dance  the  dances  that 
contribute  so  much  poetry  to  the  life  of  the  city. 

I.  Cathleen  Mavourneen.       2.  Irish  Jig.        3.  Irene  Liebe. 
4.  "Dance  Dear  Partner  Mine."     5.  German  Hopping  Dance. 
6.  Neapolitan  Bacarolle.  7.  Tarantelle. 

8.  The  Volga  Boatman.  9.  Russian  Folk  Dance. 

10.  Russian  Court  Dance. 

11.  Gott  un  Sein  Mishpet  Is  Gerecht 

12.  Russian  Kasatchak. 

Such  experiments  have  been  tried  not  only 
on  the  upper  and  lower  East  Side  of  New 
York,  but  all  over  the  country.  A  Pageant  of 
the  Prairies  lately  given  in  North  Dakota  was 
as  successful  as  the  Pageant  of  the  Melting  Pot 
of  New  York  City.  Pageants,  festivals  and 
religious  feasts  are  strong  reminders  of  old- 
country  settings.  They  invite  the  cooperation 
of  all  the  forces  in  a  neighborhood  and  bring 
out  its  best  resources. 

No  street  programme  can  be  effective  without 
the  backing  of  the  neighborhood.  The  neigh- 
borhood should  be  made  the  keeper  of  the  con- 
science of  the  child.  Nothing  inspires  a 
neighborhood  so  readily  as  an  appeal  in  behalf 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     269 

of  its  children.     All  rally  to  the  call  of  the 
child. 

It  would  not  take  long  to  provide  seats  for 
tired  children  if  the  neighborhood  once  real- 
ized how  tired  are  the  little  fellows  resting  on 
the  curbstone.  Once  a  neighborhood  is  con- 
vinced of  the  hazards  of  late  hours,  it  will  re- 
quire no  curfew.  It  will  sound  its  own  alarm. 
In  the  spirit  of  self-made  Chicago,  nearly 
every  community,  large  or  small,  says,  "Show 
me  and  I  will." 

Supervision  of  street  life  would  impose  many 
duties  on  the  community  as  a  whole.  Every 
community  should  maintain  enough  schools, 
playgrounds  and  recreation  centers  for  all  its 
children.  Street  supervision  cannot  take  the 
place  of  these.  Every  community  must  also 
provide  for  the  sanitation  and  safety  of  its 
streets.  It  will  have  to  supply  police  matrons 
and  a  Street  Supervisor.  These  executives 
will  need  adequate  salaries  and  power  to  act  in 
emergencies  without  fear  or  favor.  They 
should  hold  office  under  civil  service,  prefer- 


270  STREET-LAND 

ably  under  the  direction  of  the  board  of  edu- 
cation. The  community  should  make  provi- 
sion for  the  adequate  relief  of  dependent,  neg- 
lected and  delinquent  children,  who  appreci- 
ably lower  the  standards  of  street  life.  Ade- 
quate social  standards  of  street  life  require 
that  the  streets  be  rid  of  beggars  (juvenile 
as  well  as  adult),  cripples,  contagious  children, 
child  workers,  pick-pockets,  "drunks"  and 
street  walkers, — all  of  whom  lead  children 
astray. 

More  important  than  the  enactment  of  street 
legislation  is  the  maintenance  in  the  commu- 
nity of  a  persistent  lively  interest  in  its  enforce- 
ment. Without  such  an  interest,  all  laws  are 
dead  letters  and  all  officials  useless.  In  an 
indifferent  community,  such  officials  are  often 
removed  simply  because  they  have  no  organ- 
ized backing.  The  interests  of  a  small  group 
of  real-estate  owners  solely  influenced  by  the 
possibility  of  a  rise  in  taxes  frequently  out- 
weigh the  wishes  of  a  whole  neighborhood. 

It  is  well,  therefore,  to  raise  the  question  of 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     271 

expense  now.  How  much  would  it  cost  to 
carry  out  this  plan  of  supervision?  The  1914 
report  on  Boston's  playgrounds  shows  that  they 
cost  about  fifty  cents  a  month  per  child.  The 
children's  corners  with  which  Boston  is  experi- 
menting cost  twenty  cents  a  month  per  child. 
Surely  it  is  worth  a  quarter  to  every  taxpayer, 
direct  or  indirect,  to  keep  a  child  off  the  streets 
one  whole  month. 

Unfortunately,  too  many  of  our  streets, 
especially  our  side  streets,  are  unfit  to  walk  on, 
let  alone  to  play  on.  The  unpaved  streets  of 
Chicago  alone,  if  pieced  together,  would  reach 
as  far  as  Boston.  And  a  poor  road  it  would  be 
as  compared  with  the  beautiful  roads  for  auto- 
mobiling  now  found  in  nearly  every  State  in  the 
Union.  Making  our  residential  streets  as  suit- 
able for  children's  play  as  our  modern  city 
thoroughfares  and  State  roads  are  for  auto- 
mobiling  would  constitute  the  big  initial 
cost. 

Intelligent  city  planning  will  in  the  future 
make  better  provision  for  the  children  of 


272  STREET-LAND 

Street-Land.  City  planning  and  replanning 
have  come  to  be  widely  recognized  as  absolute 
necessities.  The  best  development  of  our 
municipalities,  the  health,  efficiency  and  happi- 
ness of  their  citizens, — more  especially  the  little 
citizens, — make  city  planners  as  imperative  as 
home  architects.  The  ideal  city  planner  will 
be  concerned  not  merely  with  what  a  city  ought 
to  look  like,  but  also  with  what  the  citizens  will 
look  and  act  like. 

He  will  fully  appreciate,  for  example,  the 
relation  between  drinking  fountains  and  sa- 
loons. He  will  not  lose  sight  of  the  need  of 
abundant  resting-places,  shelters,  convenience 
stations  and  bubbling  fountains  wherever  the 
comfort  of  the  public  (including  the  children) 
makes  them  necessary.  He  will  plan  for 
proper  coordination  in  the  use  of  streets,  pro- 
viding in  advance  for  the  interests  of  little 
children  as  well  as  of  big  business.  In  these 
and  numerous  other  ways,  he  will  save  the 
cities  of  tomorrow  from  the  fatal  and  foolish 
mistakes  of  the  cities  of  yesterday. 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     273 

Replanning  our  older  cities — in  other  words, 
correcting  their  mistakes — has  been  trans- 
formed from  a  dream  into  reality  by  the  brave 
and  inspiring  attempt  on  the  part  of  Congress, 
at  the  death-bed  request  of  Mrs.  Woodrow  Wil- 
son, to  improve — if  need  be,  to  abolish — the 
side  streets  and  alleys  of  our  national  capital. 
This  act  of  Congress  marks  the  passing  of 
the  slum  streets  of  the  city  of  Washington. 
It  is  at  once  an  invitation  and  a  challenge  to 
other  cities  to  do  likewise. 

The  word  "slum"  is  a  hard  word.  It  is  a 
foreign  word  imported  from  England,  and  it 
would  never  have  found  its  way  into  American 
dictionaries  but  for  the  folly  of  American 
cities.  Far  from  profiting  by  English  experi- 
ence, our  own  municipalities  reproduced  the 
kind  of  houses  and  streets  which  invited  the 
"slum"  rebuke.  Our  cities  have  failed  in  the 
most  elementary  duty  of  keeping  their  streets 
clean.  They  have  failed,  if  one  may  be  per- 
mitted the  phrase,  to  wash  their  own  faces. 
Yet  they  scold  their  street  children  for  being 


274  STREET-LAND 

dirty.  But  in  this,  children  merely  reflect 
their  environment. 

The  suggestion  is  now  commonplace  that  the 
way  to  abolish  poverty  is  to  let  the  poor  alone 
and  concentrate  all  efforts  on  the  causes  which 
make  them  poor.  Since  it  is  the  almost  savage 
environment  which  makes  many  city  children 
little  savages,  we  must  learn  that  our  chief 
task  is  to  civilize  the  environment.  Nor  can 
this  be  accomplished  by  philanthropy  or  law. 
These  are  curative,  not  preventive,  agencies. 
Sound  economics,  made  popular  by  safe  invest- 
ments in  homes  for  the  people  built  by  the 
municipality  or  State, — as  in  Letchworth,  Eng- 
land, and  in  'Belgium, — alone  will  ultimately 
abolish  slums  and  slum  products  and  prevent 
their  reproduction  in  the  rising  cities  of 
[America. 

One  Fourth  of  July  I  was  asked  to  speak  on 
the  kind  of  citizens  the  children  of  immigrants 
are  likely  to  be.  I  went  to  "Little  Italy"  that 
morning  for  suggestions.  North  Square  was 
crowded  with  the  folks  of  the  Sunny  Land. 


STREET  LIFE:  A  PROGRAMME     275 

Everybody  spoke  Italian  and  looked  Italian. 
The  neighborhood  seemed  distinctly  foreign. 
For  a  time  I  could  not  detect  one  American 
note  or  mien. 

All  at  once  I  heard  an  American  tune  and 
presently  I  witnessed  a  picturesque  Fourth  of 
July  procession.  It  consisted  of  a  dozen  little 
tots  headed  by  Tony,  aged  five,  with  an  Ameri- 
can flag  in  each  hand.  Tony  led  the  singing. 
He  did  his  best  in  an  effort  to  recall  the  song 
he  had  learned  the  day  before  in  the  kinder- 
garten. He  tried  it  to  several  tunes :  "Tramp, 
Tramp,  Tramp,  the  Boys  Are  Marching," 
"Yankee  Doodle,"  and  others.  None  of  these 
suited  the  words.  They  did  not  ring  true  to 
the  tune  of  the  kindergarten  song.  Suddenly, 
in  an  outburst  of  patriotism,  he  faced  about, 
brought  his  procession  to  a  halt  and,  waving 
his  flags  in  the  air,  shouted,  "Well,  anyway, 
hurrah  for  George  Washington!" 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  genuineness  of 
this  spontaneous  outburst  of  patriotism,  or  of 
the  general  applause  which  rang  through  the 


276  STREET-LAND 

square.  It  was  distinctly  American.  What 
was  really  foreign  was  Tony's  sordid  environ- 
ment, his  street  setting.  This,  however,  was 
not  of  his  making,  but  ours;  and  it  may  yet 
prove  his  unmaking. 

Here,  then,  was  my  Fourth  of  July  theme.  I 
went  away  and  told  my  audience  that  the  kind 
of  American  young  Tony  would  be  depended 
on  the  kind  of  American  we  all  wanted  him  to 
be;  and,  more  particularly,  upon  the  environ- 
ment and  the  opportunities  we  were  offering 
him.  In  plain  language,  the  entire  street  prob- 
lem is  "up  to  us." 


THE  END 


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Juvenile  Courts  and  Probation.    Bernard  Flexner  and 

Roger  N.  Baldwin.    The  Century  Company,  New 

York,  1914 
Juvenile  Offenders.    W.  Douglas  Morrison.    D.  Ap- 

pleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1900 
Juvenile  Street-Cleaning  Leagues  of  New  York.    R. 

S.  Simons.     American  City,  3:163 
Juvenile  Street  Trading.    O.  W.  Hind.    Shaftesbury 

Magazine,  November,  1910 

Kid  wot  Works  at  Night,  The.  William  Hard.  Every- 
body's, 18:25 

Laggards  in  our  Schools.  Leonard  P.  Ayres.  Chari- 
ties Publication  Committee,  New  York,  1909 

Last  Will,  A.  Williston  Fish.  Alfred  Bartlett,  Bos- 
ton, 1908 

Letters  from  a  Chinese  Official.  G.  Lowes  Dickinson. 
McClure,  Phillips  &  Company,  New  York,  1903 

Letters  to  the  Farm  Boy.  Henry  Wallace.  The  Mac- 
millan  Company,  New  York,  1900 

Life  and  Labour  of  the  People  in  London.  Charles 
Booth,  Editor.  LThe  Macmillan  Company,  Lon- 
don, 1903 

Life  of  the  Seventh  Earl  of  Shaftesbury.  Jennie  M. 
Bingham.  Curts  &  Jennings,  Cincinnati,  1899 

Little  People  of  the  Dust.  Joseph  B.  Egan.  Pilgrim 
Press,  Boston,  1913 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  285 

Manchester  Boys  at  Work  and  Play.  Charles  E.  B. 
Russell.  University  Press,  Manchester,  England, 

19*3 

,    Making  of  an  American,  The.      Jacob  A.  Riis.    The 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1913 

Menace  of  Street  Trading  by  Children,  The.  H.  C. 
Dwight.  American  City,  Jan.,  1915 

Montessori  Method,  The.  Maria  Montessori.  Fred- 
erick A.  Stokes,  New  York,  1912 

Moral  and  Social  Significance  of  Modern  Education, 
The.  In  Essays  on  the  Social  Gospel.  Carl  Adolf 
Harnack  and  Wilhelm  Hermann.  Translated  by 
G.  M.  Craik.  Williams  &  Norgate,  London,  1907 

My  Mamie  Rose.  Owen  Kildare.  The  Baker  and 
Taylor  Company,  New  York,  1903 

Newer  Ideals  of  Peace.  Jane  Addams.  The  Macmil- 
lan Company,  New  York,  1907 

New  Jersey  Children  in  Street  Trades.  E.  B.  Butler. 
Charities,  March  16,  1907 

New  Rules  for  Street  Trades.  Charities,  February  13, 
1909 

Newsboy  Wanderers  are  Tramps  in  the  Making. 
Ernest  Poole.  Charities  and  Commons,  10  :i6o 

Next  Generation,  The.  Frances  Gulick  Jewett.  Ginn 
&  Company,  Boston,  1914 

Nickel  Theatre,  The.  Maurice  Willows.  Annals  of 
American  Academy  Supplement,  July,  191 1 

Occupations  of  Children  Leaving  School,  Returns  on. 
Compiled  for  House  of  Commons,  1899 


286  STREET-LAND 

Oliver  Twist.    Charles  Dickens. 

Open-Air  Schools.    Leonard  P.  Ayres.    Doubleday, 

Page  &  Company,  New  York,  1910 
Outdoor  Schools.    Elnora  W.  Curtis.    American  City 


Pageants  and  Pageantry.    Esther  W.  Bates.    Ginn  & 

Company,  Boston,  1912 
People  at  Play,  The.    Rollin  Lynde  Hartt.    Hough- 

ton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1909 
Pittsburgh  Survey.     Paul  U.  Kellogg,  Editor.     Chari- 

ties Publication  Committee,  New  York,  1909-14 
Play  and  Playgrounds.    Allen  T.  Burns.     Mind  and 

Body,  October  &  November,  1909 
Play  and  Recreation  for  the  Open  Country.     Henry  S. 

Curtis.     Ginn  &  Company,  Boston,  1914 
Playground  Technique  and  Playcraft.    Arthur  Leland 

and  Lorna  Higbee  Leland.    F.  A.  Bassette  Com- 

pany, Springfield,  1909 
Popular  Amusements.     Richard  Henry  Edwards.     As- 

sociation Press,  New  York  1915 
Poverty.    Robert  Hunter.    The  Macmillan  Company, 

New  York.  1905 
Problems  of  Boy  Life.    J.  H.  Whitehouse,  Editor.     P. 

S.  King  &  Son,  London,  1912 
Problems  of   Child   Welfare.     George   B.    Mangold. 

The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1914 
Promised  Land,  The.     Mary  Antin.     Houghton  Mif- 

flin Company,  Boston,  1912 

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Good? 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  287 

An  Hour-and-a-Half  School  Day.  Ella  Frances 
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A  High  School  that  would  really  Educate.  Fred- 
erick Burk.  Ladies*  Home  Journal,  March, 

1913 

Fitting  the  Public  Schools  to  the  Children.     Nellie 
Seeds    Nearing   and    Scott    Nearing.     Ladies' 
Home  Journal,  March,  1913 
Public  Schools  that  are  Making  Good. 
Elementary  Schools  that  are  Linked  to  Real  Life. 
Scott  Nearing.    Ladies'  Home  Journal,  April, 


High  Schools  that  are  in  Step  with  Life.     Scott 
Nearing.     Ladies'  Home  Journal,  May,  1913 

Recreation  Surveys.     Cincinnati,  1913.     Detroit,  1913. 

Indianapolis,  1914.     Providence,  1912 
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versity, New  York,  1907 
Republic   of    Plato,    The.     Translated   by    Benjamin 

Jowett.    Colonial  Press,  London,  1910 

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Louise  de  Koven  Bowen.    The  Macmillan  Com- 

pany, New  York,  1914 
School   and   Society,   The.    John  Dewey.     McClure, 

Phillips  &  Company,  New  York,  1900. 
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United  "States  Bureau  of  Education  Bulletin  No, 


288  STREET-LAND 

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School  and  Modern  Life,  The.    James  Hayden  Tufts. 

Religious  Education,  4 1343 
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Company,  New  York,  1913 
Some   Ethical   Gains   through   Legislation.     Florence 

Kelley.    The   Macmillan   Company,   New   York, 

1905 
Soul  of  the  Street,  The.    Norman  Duncan.    McClure, 

Phillips  &  Company,  New  York,  1900 

Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,  The.  Jane  Ad- 
dams.  The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1909 

Street  Arabs  and  Gutter  Snipes.  George  C.  Needham. 
D.  L.  Guernsey,  Boston,  1887 

Street  as  a  Playground,  The.  Howard  Bradstreet. 
Playground,  March,  1912 

Street  Life  in  London.  John  Thomson  and  Adolphe 
Smith.  S.  Low,  London,  1877 

Street  Play.  James  P.  Petrie.  Playground,  March, 
1912 

Street  Trades  and  Juvenile  Delinquency.  Josephine  E. 
Goldmark.  Political  Science  Quarterly,  Septem- 
ber, 1904 

Street  Trades  and  their  Regulation.  A  Symposium. 
Edward  N.  Clopper,  Zenas  L.  Potter  and  Lillian  A. 
Quinn.  National  Child  Labor  Bulletin,  August, 
1912 

Tenement  House  Problem,  The.    Robert  W.  DeForest 


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and  Lawrence  Veiller.     The  Macmillan  Company, 
New  York,  1903 

Town  Child,  The.  Reginald  A.  Bray.  T.  Fisher  Un- 
win,  London,  1911 

Town  Planning  in  Practice.  Raymond  Unwin.  T. 
Fisher  Unwin,  London,  1909 

Training  the  Boy.  William  A.  McKeever.  The  Mac- 
millan Company,  New  York,  1913 

Training  the  Girl.  William  A.  McKeever.  The  Mac- 
millan Company,  New  York,  1914 

Tramping  with  Tramps.  Josiah  Flint.  The  Century 
Company,  New  York,  1909 

Traps  for  the  Young.  Anthony  Comstock.  Funk  and 
Wagnalls  Company,  New  York,  1883 

Truancy :  A  Few  Causes  and  a  Few  Cures.  Bert  Hall. 
National  Education  Association  Journal,  47th  an- 
nual meeting,  1909 

Truancy,  Causes  of.  James  L.  Feiser.  Indiana  Bul- 
letin of  Charities  and  Correction,  June,  1910 

-Twenty  Years  at  Hull  House.  Jane  Addams.  The 
Macmillan  Company,  New  York,  1910 

Two  o'Clock  Sunday  Morning.  Scott  Nearing.  In- 
dependent, 72:288 

Vocational  Training,  A  Report  on.  City  Club  of  Chi- 
cago, 1912 

Voice  of  the  City  and  Other  Stories.    O.  Henry.    Dou- 

bleday,  Page  &  Company,  New  York,  1913 
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&  Company,  New  York,  1906 


290  STREET-LAND 

What  Social  Workers  should  Know  about  their  own 
Communities.  Margaret  F.  Byington.  Russell 
Sage  Foundation,  New  York,  1911 

Why  Overwork  the  Street  Worker  ?  Edward  N.  Clop- 
per.  National  Child  Labor  Bulletin,  May,  1914 

Why  250,000  Children  Quit  School.  Luther  H.  Gulick. 
Russell  Sage  Foundation,  New  York,  1910 

Wider  Use  of  the  School  Plant.  C.  A.  Perry.  Chari- 
ties Publication  Committee,  New  York,  1910 

Width  and  Arrangement  of  Streets,  The.  Charles  M. 
Robinson.  McGraw-Hill  Book  Company,  New 
York,  1911 

Winning  the  Boy.  Lilburn  Merrill.  Fleming  H. 
Revell  Co.,  New  York,  1908 

Woman  and  Child  Wage-Earners  in  the  United  States, 
Report  on  Condition  of.  United  States  Commis- 
sion of  Labor,  1910-1913 

Women  and  Economics.  Charlotte  Perkins  Oilman. 
Small,  Maynard  &  Company,  Boston,  1899 

Young  Malefactor,  The.  Thomas  Travis.  Thomas 
Y.  Crowell  &  Company,  New  York,  1908 

Young  Working  Girls.  Robert  A.  Woods  and  Albert  J. 
Kennedy,  Editors.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company, 
Boston,  1913 

Your  Boy :  His  Nature  and  Nurture.  George  A.  Dick- 
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Your  Child  Today  and  Tomorrow.  Sidonie  M. 
Gruenberg.  J.  B.  Lippincott  Company,  Phila- 
delphia, 1913 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  291 

Youth:    Its   Education,   Regimen   and   Hygiene.     G. 

Stanley  Hall.    D.  Appleton  &  Company,   New 

York,  1912 
Youth,    School    and    Vocation.    Meyer    Bloomfield. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  Boston,  1915 


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